From time to time at 360Education we carry guest blogs which we hope may be of some interest to readers.  Today's is by David Lowe, Principal of DLD, an independent sixth form college in Central London.

It’s that time of year again, when the release of results seems to give rise to hackneyed and sterile arguments about the validity of the examinations. However, the debate ought not to be about whether A-levels have got easier, or how imprecise a predictor they are for universities, but the importance of education itself. It is critically important to the individual young people who are getting their results, to their families and to our wider society and our economy. We should surely be debating how education can and should prepare students for the world of the future, which is the world that they will inhabit. We should be exploring ways of making education more relevant, focused and ever more effectively delivered. 

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It’s been difficult being a determined blogger this last month or so.  Every time inspiration strikes, yet another government announcement, or news of an impending cut, or some further reorganisation sends me back to the drawing board.  Despairing of being able to coherently address some of these issues, at least until the politicians have departed for their bread and water style holiday at a rainy English resort, I’m therefore forced to fall back on basic principles.

Now, I will be the first to acknowledge that my views were formed in those far off days when my alma mater, the London School of Economics, was regarded as a radical establishment.  However, I’m not sure that they really are that controversial.

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Disciplinary issues, truancy, special needs (to integrate or to separate) – some of the everyday problems which beset teachers in our schools, and that’s before you get to the administration, let alone actually start to teach!

Teachers are not necessarily equipped to be social workers, psychiatrists, or, heaven forbid, policemen, yet even the most damaged (in the widest sense of the word) children can be helped with the right care and attention – see www.kidsco.org.uk, the charity founded by Camila Batmanghelidjh in 1996.  Of course, such care and attention costs money, but in today’s climate, with disruptive pupils in particular, it is exclusion that sometimes seems as though it is becoming the weapon of first, not last, resort. 

Such – neglect? - however can be an expensive solution – expensive in human terms, because it can lead to semi-literate adults with significant unemployment issues, perhaps even drug abuse and criminality, but expensive too in cash terms, because of the opportunity cost to the economy as well as the additional costs to the public purse in terms of the justice and health systems. 

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A couple of weeks ago I published a blog on “Cuts – the outlook for university staff levels”.  It seems to have attracted quite a lot of comment, so I thought I would follow up by talking to some of the media, national and specialist, which carry recruitment advertising for the sector.

Interestingly, given the general mood of pessimism around, I once again ended up feeling more positive than I had anticipated.  There was a consensus that, at least in the short term, there was something of an upturn – or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the bottom had been reached, and year on year figures had started to improve, if only by a little.  In spite of what has clearly been a terrible twelve months for the media, one at least claimed to be on budget so far this year.

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With talk of cuts drowning out all other kinds of discourse, I thought it would be interesting to canvass opinions in the universities as to the outlook for employment over the next year or two.  Now, I certainly wouldn’t pretend that what I did was to conduct a scientific survey amongst Advancement professionals at the more than 20 institutions I spoke to, but nonetheless the results were interesting.

Firstly, the bad news. At least a couple of institutions are facing compulsory redundancies, and half were anticipating voluntary redundancies/natural wastage etc, the majority of which were expected to primarily impact administrative staff.  Most universities had at least a freeze on recruitment, and many had put in place very strict rules governing the filling of posts which become vacant.

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Any motorist driving to work at school times will be familiar with the congestion caused by the school run - but what are parents to do?  Schools are often not within walking distance of home and if you have two or three children at different schools – which does happen - how do you cope? Choice (whatever it may be) is universally held to be a good thing, but in practice it often means that children do not go to the nearest school.  How can government want parents to have a choice of school on social grounds, and also encourage women to work on economic grounds, and promote children walking to school on health grounds - but at the same time make all of this all but impossible because it means that children attend schools miles from home?  There is a further effect, namely that driving is the only practical way of getting children to school on time, especially outside the major conurbations.

So much for environmental policy.

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Well, I guess the electoral excitement is now over, and reality will have to take over.  Personally, I welcome in principle the notion of parties working together (it has produced, in Germany, one of the world’s most successful countries, after all), and if it leads to politicians insulting each other rather less (in case they need a coalition after some future election) and concentrating on policies rather more, well I don’t know too many people who will regret that!

As far as Education goes, I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen of both Michael Gove and David Willetts when I’ve seen them in relatively intimate surroundings – I’m not convinced that television is a great friend to either.  Policy is another matter of course, and it’s pretty clear that, whilst there are interesting proposals for increased funding in certain areas, education as a whole, and especially tertiary education, will not escape the inevitable cuts in public funding which lie ahead.

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No doubt after the Election we will hear about the impact that the digital communications revolution has had on the fortunes of the various parties – and no doubt the reports will be as contradictory as their policies.  However, when normal service resumes, and we go back to attracting students and recruiting staff (assuming that there is any money of course), there will certainly be some lessons for education marketers.

Actually, one of the key lessons is that things are changing, and that experimentation beyond the tried and trusted is important, if only to learn what doesn’t work – a toe in the water is less costly than a full scale disaster.  And in our world, there are always new things to try….

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Well, it’s a dirty job, but someone had to do it – I’ve been reading the manifestos of the three national parties in order to see what they have to say about Education, especially FE and HE.When you strip out the bile and hyperbole, the answer was rather less than I expected.

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