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05-The Right Education for Everyone
By: admin Date: March 1, 2018, 8:11 pm
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HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H6BCp31THU&t=223s
HTML https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-the-right-education-for-everyone
Next lesson will be XX XX XX
PM: The right education for everyone
I took my very first steps into elected politics as a local
councillor, in south London.
For two years I was the chairman of the education authority in
Merton.
It was an experience I will never forget.
I saw how vital good schools and colleges are to a community.
How the hopes and aspirations which parents have for their
children and which young people have for their futures are
bound-up with the quality of education on offer.
And here in this fantastic setting, in a building from Derby’s
proud past, which today is helping to define a fantastic future
for this city and county as part of Derby College the immense
value of great local institutions, providing people with an
education that truly works for them, is clear.
I drew on my experiences in south London when I first became an
MP, and made my maiden speech in Parliament on the subject of
education in 1997.
I said then that the aim of education policy should be to
‘provide the right education for every child’. That ‘for some
children that will be an education that is firmly based in
learning practical and vocational skills. For others, it will be
an education based on academic excellence.’
A lot has changed in the last 20 years, but that core principle
that the needs of every child and every young person deserve to
be met still drives my vision of the education system our
country needs.
And the need for such a system has never been greater.
First, because the new technologies which are shaping the
economy of the future will transform the world of work and
demand new knowledge and skills in the decades ahead.
Technologies like artificial intelligence, biotech and new
advances in data science have the potential to drive up living
standards and open new possibilities for human achievement and
personal fulfilment. But if we are to seize those opportunities,
if we are to make Britain a great engine room of this
technological revolution in the twenty-first century we need to
make the most of all of our talents.
The sixth form students I met at Featherstone High School in
Southall this morning, and the young people studying here at
Derby College, will be starting their careers in the new economy
of the 2020s and 2030s. To give them the skills they need to
succeed, we need an education and training system which is more
flexible and more diverse than it is today.
One which enriches their lives with knowledge, gives each of
them a great start in life, and is there for them when they need
it.
And there is another reason why we must act now to deliver that
education system that truly works for everyone. Because the
Britain of the 2020s will be a Britain outside of the European
Union, pursuing a new course in the world.
I want the Britain which those young people will be living in to
be a self-confident, outward-looking Britain.
The best friend and ally of our EU partners.
But also a Britain which is out in the world, forming even
closer ties with friends and allies right across the globe. We
will learn together, collaborating in research which makes new
scientific breakthroughs and improves our understanding of the
world.
We will trade together, spreading opportunity and prosperity
ever more widely.
And we will stand together in support of the shared values which
unite Britain with so many other like minded countries – in
Europe yes, but across the world too.
To become that Britain where a thriving economy drives up living
standards and creates greater security and opportunity for
everyone and where the prosperity which economic growth
generates is more fairly shared in our society we need education
to be the key that unlocks the door to a better future.
Through education, we can become a country where everyone, from
every background, gains the skills they need to get a good job
and live a happy and fulfilled life.
To achieve that, we must have an education system at all levels
which serves the needs of every child.
And if we consider the experience which many young people have
of our system as it is, it is clear that we do not have such a
system today.
Challenges we face
Imagine two children currently in secondary school and thinking
about their futures.
One is a working class boy from here in Derby.
He aspires to a career as a lawyer, but he doesn’t have a social
network to draw on with any links to the profession, and he
doesn’t know if someone like him can make it.
The road he will have to take to achieve his dream is much more
challenging than the one his counterpart who is privately
educated will face.
Almost a quarter of the students at our research-intensive
universities come from the 7% of the population who go to
private school.
And the professions which draw their recruits primarily from
these institutions remain unrepresentative of the country as a
whole, skewed in favour of a particular social class. For the
boy from a working class home here in Derby, the odds are
stacked against him and as a country, we all lose out when we do
not make the most of everyone’s talents and ability.
And now imagine a second child.
She is a girl from a middle class background, who is privately
educated.
Her dream is to be a software developer, and she wishes she
could go straight into the industry.
But she faces another set of pressures, which tell her that
studying academic A-levels and making a UCAS application to a
Russell group university is what the world expects of her.
The idea that there might be another path just as promising and
better suited to her individual hopes and dreams simply doesn’t
occur. In each case, the system is not working for the
individual or for our country.
Paul Johnson of the IFS recently wrote about the experiences his
two sons had of leaving school. One, a natural fit at
university, found the application process simple and straight
forward.
The other, who wanted to pursue a technical course, found it
much more difficult because, ‘everything points to university as
the default.’ Roughly half of young people go to university and
roughly half do not. But in the twenty years since we introduced
tuition fees, public debate on tertiary education has been
dominated by a discussion of how we fund and support those who
go to university, and there has been nothing like the same
attention paid to how we support the training and develop the
skills of the young people who do not.
Most politicians, most journalists, most political commentators
took the academic route themselves, and will expect their
children to do the same. And there remains a perception that
going to university is really the only desirable route, while
going into training is something for other people’s children.
If we are going to succeed in building a fairer society and a
stronger economy, we need to throw away this outdated attitude
for good and create a system of tertiary education that works
for all our young people.
That means equality of access to an academic university
education which is not dependent on your background, and it
means a much greater focus on the technical alternatives too.
One of the great social achievements of the last half-century
has been the transformation of an academic university education
from something enjoyed almost-exclusively by a social elite into
something which is open to everyone.
But making university truly accessible to young people from
every background is not made easier by a funding system which
leaves students from the lowest-income households bearing the
highest levels of debt, with many graduates left questioning the
return they get for their investment.
And for those young people who do not go on to academic study,
the routes into further technical and vocational training today
are hard to navigate, the standards across the sector are too
varied and the funding available to support them is patchy.
The UK’s participation rate in advanced technical education –
teaching people skills which will be crucial for the future – is
low by international standards. The latest annual figures show
that fewer than 16,000 people completed higher qualifications
through the further education system.
That is compared to almost 350,000 undergraduate degrees which
were awarded last year.
This imbalance has an economic cost, with some businesses
finding it hard to recruit the skilled workers they need.
But it also has a social cost in wasted human potential, which
we too often ignore.
So now is the time to take action to create a system that is
flexible enough to ensure that everyone gets the education that
suits them.
That’s what the review which I am launching today sets out to
deliver.
And in doing so, it will build on the enormous progress we have
already made in raising standards in our schools since 2010.
School standards
The success of every young person in whatever they go on to do
in life, is shaped by the education they receive at school and
the Conservatives have put restoring rigour and high standards
in our primary and secondary schools at the heart of our
education reforms.
We launched a major expansion of the academy programme, putting
school teachers in charge of raising standards in their schools.
And we also went a step further, creating free schools – to give
teachers, universities and charities the chance to bring greater
innovation and specialism to the mix.
I have always believed in the great potential which Free Schools
have to improve the lives of children.
That’s why I put them in the Conservative election manifesto in
2001, as shadow education secretary. And now free schools score
some of the very highest results at GCSE.
The range of reforms which we put in place are leading to
improved outcomes for young people. 1.9 million more children
are being taught in schools that are good or outstanding.
The attainment gap is shrinking at primary and secondary school.
And England is improving internationally. The job is not yet
done, but we are making excellent progress, and enormous credit
is due to the teachers whose hard work has driven these improved
outcomes.
Tertiary Review
On top of the firm foundation of a great primary and secondary
education, and the reforms we are putting in place to introduce
high quality T-levels we now need to ensure that options open to
young people as they move into adulthood are more diverse, that
the routes into further education and training are clearer, and
that all options are fully accessible to everyone.
That is why I am today launching a major and wide-ranging review
into post-18 education.
The review will be supported by an expert panel.
And I am delighted that Philip Augar has agreed to chair that
panel.
It will focus on four key questions. How we ensure that tertiary
education is accessible to everyone, from every background.
How our funding system provides value for money, both for
students and taxpayers.
How we incentivise choice and competition right across the
sector.
And finally, how we deliver the skills that we need as a
country.
This is a review which, for the first time, looks at the whole
post-18 education sector in the round, breaking down false
boundaries between further and higher education, so we can
create a system which is truly joined-up.
Universities – many of which provide technical as well as
academic courses – will be considered alongside colleges,
Institutes of Technology and apprenticeship providers.
There are huge success stories to be found right across the
sector, at every level, and by taking a broad view, Philip and
his expert panel will be able to make recommendations which help
the sector to be even better in the future.
Student finance
Our universities are world-leaders and jewels in Britain’s
crown.
16 British universities are in the world’s top 100, and four are
in the top ten.
I want to know how we can build on that success, and at the same
time ensure that people from all backgrounds share the benefits
of university study. So the review will examine how we can give
people from disadvantaged backgrounds an equal chance to
succeed.
That includes how disadvantaged students and learners receive
maintenance support, both from Government and universities and
colleges.
But the review will also look more widely, and examine our whole
system of student funding.
There are many aspects of the current system which work well.
Universities in England are now better funded than they have
been for a generation.
And sharing the cost of university between taxpayers as a whole
and the graduates who directly benefit from university study is
a fair principle.
It has enabled us to lift the cap on the number of places –
which was in effect a cap on aspiration – so universities can
expand and so broaden access.
But I know that other aspects of the system are a cause for
serious concern – not just for students themselves, but parents
and grandparents too.
This is a concern which I share. The competitive market between
universities which the system of variable tuition fees envisaged
has simply not emerged.
All but a handful of universities charge the maximum possible
fees for undergraduate courses.
Three-year courses remain the norm.
And the level of fees charged do not relate to the cost or
quality of the course. We now have one of the most expensive
systems of university tuition in the world.
We have already begun to take action to address some of these
concerns.
We scrapped the increase in fees that was due this year, and we
have increased the amount graduates can earn before they start
repaying their fees to £25,000.
The review will now look at the whole question of how students
and graduates contribute to the cost of their studies including
the level, terms and duration of their contribution.
Our goal is a funding system which provides value for money for
graduates and taxpayers, so the principle that students as well
as taxpayers should contribute to the cost of their studies is
an important one.
I believe – as do most people, including students – that those
who benefit directly from higher education should contribute
directly towards the cost of it. That is only fair.
The alternative – shifting the whole burden of university
tuition onto the shoulders of taxpayers as a whole – would have
three consequences.
First, it would inevitably mean tax increases for the majority
of people who did not go to university, and who on average earn
less than those who did. Second, it would mean our universities
competing with schools and hospitals for scarce resources, which
in the past meant they lost out, putting their international
pre-eminence at risk.
And third, it would mean the necessary re-introduction of a cap
on numbers, with the Treasury regulating the number of places an
institution could offer, and preventing the expansion which has
driven wider access in recent years.
That is not my idea of a fair or progressive system.
Diversity and choice
And Philip and his colleagues will also look beyond
universities, to examine choice and competition right across the
sector and recommend practical solutions.
This will build on reforms which are already in train to
increase the options which are available across further and
higher education.
Over the last few years, reforms to technical education have
improved every aspect of the offer available to young people. We
now have higher standards for apprenticeships and vocational
courses.
T-levels are on the way, which will provide a high-quality,
technical alternative to A-levels.
A new network of Institutes of Technology will specialise in the
advanced technical skills our economy needs.
This review will now identify how we can help young people make
more effective choices between these different options. That
could include giving young people better guidance about the
earning potential of different jobs and what different
qualifications are needed to get them, so they can make more
informed decisions about their futures.
But this isn’t just about young people.
Retraining throughout the course of your career, to change jobs
or gain promotion, will only become more necessary as new
technologies have an impact on our economy.
We need to support flexible life-long learning, including
part-time and distance learning – something which the current
funding system does not always make easy.
So by focusing on these four key priorities, making tertiary
education accessible to all, promoting choice and competition in
the sector, delivering the skills our economy needs, and getting
value for money for students and taxpayers we can give every
young person access to an education that suits their skills and
aspirations.
One which opens up possibilities for their future and helps them
into a rewarding career.
Conclusion
Almost thirty years ago, when I was in charge of that local
education authority, an incoming Conservative Prime Minister,
who like me went to a state school said that the great task of
the coming decade should be to ‘make the whole of this country a
genuinely classless society’.
Eighteen months ago, when I became Prime Minister, I spoke of my
desire to make Britain a Great Meritocracy. Today, our ambition
for the Britain we will build outside the EU must be just as
great.
And it must be matched with a determination to turn that
ambition into reality.
Because by voting to leave the EU in 2016, millions of people
across this country were not just choosing to leave the European
Union they were sending a clear message about how our society
and our economy works – or rather doesn’t work – in too many
communities.
If we are truly to make good on the instruction of the
referendum, we need to reconnect everyone in our society to a
sense of fairness and opportunity.
We need to make Britain a country where everyone can go as far
as their talents will take them and no one is held back by their
background or class.
Where education is the key to opening up opportunity for
everyone. The vision I have for the Britain we will build is of
a country which is fit for the future, delivered through bold
social and economic reform.
That is why we are building an education system which unlocks
everyone’s talents, and gives them the skills they need to go as
far as their hard work will take them.
It’s why we support the market economy and back entrepreneurs
and wealth creators – but step in when businesses don’t play by
the rules.
And it is why we are making the UK the very best place in the
world to start and grow a high-tech business – while also making
sure that new technologies work for everyone in society.
If we get it right, we can build a country that truly works for
everyone.
A country where your background does not define your future, and
class distinctions are a thing of the past. Where a boy from a
working class home can become a High Court judge, thanks to a
great state education.
And where a girl from a private school can start a software
business, thanks to a first-class technical education.
That is my vision for a fairer society and how we will deliver
it.
A society where good, rewarding work is available for everyone.
An economy with the skills it needs to succeed. Britain as the
Great Meritocracy, a country that respects hard work, rewards
effort and industry, where a happy and fulfilled life is within
everyone’s grasp.
Published 19 February 2018
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