VIEWS & OPINION Education: what is it
good for? Comment by FELICIA JACKSON, Chair of the Learn2think Foundation
The epistemology of education has been debated for thousands of years. In Ancient Greece, as long as you were male and rich, the point of education was to create thinkers and leaders. Education for everyone else meant a skill or a strong body. As modern economics took hold, education has became more about creating proponents of economic activity, training young people for their working lives.
Education is the framework through which we learn to manage
information, to assess how we should navigate the world around us. In the last few months we have seen increasing numbers of events that have only underscored that the future we face is one of uncertainty. Whether we’re facing the impacts of climate change, global pandemics, the dangers of misinformation, AI and deep-fakes or simply the biased algorithms that decide what we see, there is no doubt that the ability to ask the right question is increasingly important. The majority of our children however are taught that they need to get
the ‘right’ answer, right now and they’re rewarded for it. Schools are rewarded for the higher the number of ‘right’ answers their pupils get. Bringing up a generation of children who are always looking for the right answer means a generation who are uncomfortable with uncertainty, with nuance or with compromise. That is what leads to the polarisation
of position - the refusal to listen to other ideas - that are undermining the multilateral, diverse, cross-cutting and tolerant approach that lay behind the European ideal. What makes this terrifying is how Brexit has highlighted that analysis
and assessment of information have been ignored in the process of decision-making. There have been celebrations of the fact that Brexit has happened but many are only now waking up to the fact that the big Brexit questions, from trade agreements, environmental regulation and even citizen movement and protections, aren’t yet resolved. We’re moving into an era where uncertainty is the hallmark of the
moment, and our education system no longer seems fit for purpose. Some willingly accept misinformation if its support our beliefs, such as those who believed Brexit would see £350 million a week redirected from Europe to be invested in the NHS. That means we need to arm our children with the tools to question what they’re being told. In Finland the entire curriculum now includes ways to teach children how to understand and assess the information they’re bombarded with. It’s not just a question of identifying ‘fake news’, which can be just another label to attacks those with whom we disagree. The Finnish approach is to divide inaccurate information into three key
categories across the curriculum, that are fairly easy to understand whatever your age: mistakes, misinformation and gossip. At Learn2Think we developed the Truth Detectives to bring this teaching into schools as early as possible. Where did you find this piece of information? Who said it and do they want something? What evidence is it based on? These are tools that can help every child learn to think for themselves. Education is the most important tool in the battle to meet the
challenges of the modern world and we need to make the most of it. If we can’t take on the Finnish system ourselves, where the objective of basic education is to support pupils’ growth towards an understanding of our shared humanity and ethically responsible membership of society, providing them with the knowledge and skills needed in life, we should be doing is preparing our children for the future they face.
the least
Are schools working hard to meet Data
Protection Regulations? Comment by LYNNE TAYLOR, founder and co-CEO of GDPR in Schools (GDPRiS) and founder of ParentPay.
Since the 25 May 2018 when the regulations were implemented, schools have been working diligently to ensure the correct procedures are followed for the protection of their staff and students. However, sadly out of all the audits carried out by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), no schools are fully compliant.
With fines which could reach hundreds of thousands of pounds, it’s so important for schools to understand where they are falling short. The updated law requires schools to do a lot more than they are
currently doing and while it is hard to offer advice on such a complex and important issue in this one article, here are some of the key points to consider. The first area where schools are struggling to achieve compliance is
to understand the Data Protection Act 2018 which mirrors the EU’s GDPR. It considers any data that can be linked to a person including photographs, locations and even a scribbled message on a post-it note about a child’s state of health, their new home address or a food allergy. This greatly expands the types of data that require full evidence of the measures taken to maintain its security.
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www.education-today.co.uk
If I had to outline the main area where schools are falling short of
compliance, it’s all about transparency and accountability. The main deficiency is based around having the evidence to ‘prove’ what has been done. Without proving every step of the process, and in the event of a major breach happening at school, the ICO could inspect your school records and take action for non-compliance. Taking training as an example, schools all over the country are taking
their DPA2018 responsibility seriously and are sending their staff on Data Protection training courses. This doesn’t just apply to teachers; all staff including kitchen, office and caretakers must fully understand the DPA2018 requirements. However, can they prove compliance? They may have all had training but was it appropriate to their job, did all the staff attend and did they all understand it? Another issue for consideration is who is responsible for data
protection? It is important to understand that the school or MAT is the data controller, making the organisation completely responsible for data protection. An important question to ask yourself is whether you have appointed
a Data Protection Officer (DPO); all schools and MATS must have one and it can’t be a member of the senior leadership team. Their job is to oversee your data protection processes and ensure your school or MAT has sufficient staff and skills to discharge your obligations for data protection. Another question is whether you have paid your data protection registration fee; non-payment of the data protection registration fee has already resulted in fines to schools and other education organisations. There are so many considerations to the DPA2018, from carrying out
a Data Protection Impact Assessment, analysing contracts with suppliers, your data disposal protocol, and even what to do if you realise there has been a data breach at your school. While I can’t cover it all here, I hope this information at least gives you a little more insight and I invite you to contact me with any questions at GDPR in Schools
www.gdpr.school.
February 2020
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