VIEWS & OPINION


Is 2024 finally the time for radical education reform?


Comment by TONY RYAN, CEO of the Design & Technology Association


I should possibly start this short piece by stating that I either taught or led in secondary schools for thirty-three years before taking on my current post as Chief Executive of the Design and Technology Association. As an ex- secondary headteacher turned charity CEO, you tend to approach each year hopeful but with a certain degree of reality. I don’t expect education to be a significant part


of any political party’s electioneering campaign over the next six months plus; the economy, NHS reforms, ever-growing waiting lists, and immigration will all trump education, and that’s before we start looking at the role the UK plays and might play in the future in an increasingly volatile world.


I fully understand the pressures on any newly appointed government to prioritize actions and resources, this obviously including fiscal planning for impact. What we need in education now is a government that is courageous enough to look beyond the five-year electoral cycle and to put a long-term plan in place. In my opinion, the current education system is no longer fit for purpose. It requires a major rethink if we are to adequately prepare our young people to step into life and work confidently.


This Conservative government appears to have run out of ideas on education. For far too many years now, we have had the mantra of ‘knowledge is all’ and very little else, aside from comparing our standing on international rankings, but only on the data that shows us positively. The recently announced Advanced British Standard lacks detail and feels like a committee outcome to the question, ‘How do we tinker at the edges in a way that looks like we might be tackling the real issues?’ It will never come to fruition, and school leaders know this.


Labour has kept its powder dry so far (not just on education but across the board) but will soon have to define its position on education. I like what I see of Bridget Phillipson so far; I have yet to meet her, but I would like to.


Reviews will no doubt be high on the Labour agenda as the party seeks to ascertain the real issues and begins to implement a plan of action. It will be interesting to assess the party’s appetite for change. So far, the only education policy voiced has been its intention to change the VAT arrangements for private education. To me, this is a philosophical action rather than a strategic move. There is much that the state system can learn from the development of design, technology, and engineering within private education. The two sectors must be encouraged to work together for mutual benefit. While all the above plays out, school leaders will continue to battle with the same issues that have plagued them over the last few years, these being:


- A teacher recruitment crisis the likes of which I have never seen before. Teaching is no longer viewed as an attractive profession but


March 2024


instead is viewed by those outside as an awful lot of work, high stress, and long hours. Teacher recruitment needs urgent attention and radical reform, not another dramatized advert that changes nothing.


- Increased levels of absenteeism following the COVID interruption to education have seen many good schools forced to tackle high levels of absenteeism for the first time.


- The same COVID break appears to have broken the often-fragile relationship between school leaders and some parents who ‘no longer trust the system’. We now have over 100,000 young people listed as being home educated…but are high numbers of these students receiving an education at all.


- We have seen a mental health crisis with young people grow to record proportions over recent years as students feel pressure (real or perceived, it makes no difference) and desperately try to boost self-worth and feel that they ‘fit in’ within an increasingly complex and fast-moving world. At the same time, we have seen the support structures for mental health collapse through lack of funding and the CAMHS system is stretched beyond reasonable limits.


- School austerity will not be addressed any time soon by any incoming government. School leaders have become used to trying to produce miracles on inadequate budgets and will have to continue to do so, at least in the short to medium term, until the economy gets back on its feet.


- The economic struggle has hit some students and families more than others. Our young people must feel safe, supported, and be adequately fed to learn effectively. Sadly, too many are constantly hungry due to a lack of income at home. This is not acceptable in the sixth most prosperous country in the world.


- Falling school roles (the result of a falling school demographic population) will not assist the above as some schools will fail to fill and become financially unviable. Some very tough decisions potentially lie ahead within this context.


Finally, there is little doubt that Ofsted needs urgent review and reform. Sir Martyn Oliver looks like a strong appointment and has arrived in ‘listening mode’. I feel we need a system that holds governors and school leaders accountable for the quality of education provided within their schools, but I also think a future Ofsted needs to be a partner for school improvement and not just judge and executioner. Too many schools live in a shadow of fear around getting things wrong; we need to demonstrate and assist them in getting those same things right.


With all that said, I am an eternal optimist. I believe design and technology, the subject I started teaching over forty years ago and which has suffered so much in recent years, is reshaping its offer and will again begin gaining positive traction in schools and with the Government. We will continue to work with whatever government comes to power in the best interest of students, parents, and teachers nationally.


www.education-today.co.uk 21


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