Change is what the UK Government promises, but changes must be directed towards meaningful objectives, not born out of dogmatic ideology. Good ideas which innovate and harness energies and abilities must trump ideology. Perhaps looking to the best models which already exist and replicating them multiple times is a better starting point than reviews from scratch. There is considerable expert and broader fear that, for example, in education ideology is taking England backwards to the detriment of the young and so the UK as a whole.
LEARNING FROM THE BEST
Imagine a school leaver entering a University where as well as studying engineering they work on real life projects: no student loans, but instead an income of £23,500, and state of the art accommodation, with mentoring and coaching, and a guaranteed job after graduation. That is what, among other things, the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology provides. And it is attended as to 30% by women, compared with an engineering industry average of 18%; and it admits “twice the number of candidates who qualified for free school meals, compared to other selective universities such as the Russell Group” as Beverley Gibbs, the Institute’s director, is quoted as saying in the Sunday Telegraph of 29 December.
The Institute is founded and funded by James Dyson, perhaps the UK’s most famous and successful entrepreneurial engineer. Is this not a model which illustrates how industry can promote itself for the benefit of the generations coming through, without taxpayer money. Why is it not vaunted as a model for replication across the UK educational establishment as the Government searches for ways to dramatically upskill the population and save taxpayer money?
Imagine a school in a city suburb with an above average proportion of disadvantaged children, and a fairly typical proportion of Special Needs children; where 90% of pupils pass Maths and English GCSE, and 82% of the sixth form go to Russell Group universities; rated as outstanding by OFSTED and rated by Progress 8 as the best publicly funded school in England. Its motto is “work hard and be kind”. This is a Secondary school, the Michaela Community School in Wembley, London, where “teachers lead the learning”, where they believe that without discipline learning cannot take place. Parents seem to be delighted their children are lucky enough to go there. Of course, it will not be a perfect school but surely most people will agree it does a pretty good job. It is an Academy Free School. Why is it not vaunted for replication across the UK educational establishment as the Government seeks ways to improve opportunity for all children?
These are but two examples of “the best in class education”, so why are they not copied? The worst in class is found in Scotland and Wales where education is driven by a socialist, more woke, ideology.
IDEOLOGY THREATENS EDUCATION, ENERGY AND MORE
The Education Secretary of State, Bridget Phillipson, initiated a grand review, led by a professor, a specialist in curriculum and social inequality, Becky Francis. This has resulted in legislation making its way through Parliament which threatens not just the existence and methods of schools such as the Michaela Community School, being a Free School Academy, as it seeks to exercise State control to standardise the curriculum and things such as teacher salaries across all schools which are State funded. It also threatens the progress made over decades in England making it among the top countries for reading and writing and mathematics, it being accepted almost universally among politicians that such skills are basic bedrock to an individual being able to function in society. It is knowledge-based education which has improved performance. This is not to seek to analyse all the changes that the new legislation contemplates, but to emphasise that ideology, not the best ideas, is driving change, and in a bad way. The education review wants to deemphasise knowledge in favour of more so-called progressive goals, stating that any future curriculum must reflect “issues and diversities of our society, ensuring all children and young people are represented”.
Is it not also ideology, rather than economic necessity, which has led to VAT on private school fees? The victims of which are children in families which have scrimped and saved to get what they see as the best education for their children but who as a result of this VAT can no longer afford to fulfil their ambitions?
What will the reforms be for Universities? Will Government bite the obvious bullet that the badly performing Universities are not worth having? That so many courses produce heavily indebted students with loans that will never get repaid but with useless workplace credentials? Will they at last debunk the myth of the University degree as a prerequisite for success, and encourage skill based highest education? Perhaps industry could be mobilised to follow the Dyson model, relieving the taxpayer and benefitting the hopeful and keen young student?
And in the energy sector too ideology is driving a mad rush to net zero electricity in the UK by 2030, and most experts seem clear that is nigh impossible and probably undesirable. Contrary to promises made, bills will go up as a result. Incredibly the sole focus seems to be on wind and solar energy, both of which can fail if the weather is wrong – the wind is not blowing or the sun is not shining. Steady supply, using nuclear and gas which are not subject to the weather, is required to compensate for the times when wind and solar cannot satisfy energy demand. But nothing is being implemented urgently to provide these necessary fillers.
Energy through wind needs turbines and solar energy needs panels. China is the core supplier of both. China is generally accepted to be a hostile State within the UK intelligence community who recommend classifying them as such. China steals the data of UK citizens and cyber-attacks mercilessly, as it also assists Putin’s war machine in its war on Europe through Ukraine. China breaks any agreement, as it has done in Hong Kong, if it considers continuing it is bad for national security. The UK depends on China providing the turbines and panels and so the UK energy plan depends on a hostile State, whose treaty word is worthless. In addition, Chinese solar panels include key components such as polysilicon sourced in Xinjiang province where, it is commonly believed, Uyghur Muslims are used as forced labour. China is strongly alleged to have displaced Uyghurs to re-education camps, with women subject to forced sterilisation. Is it genocide some ask? Xinjiang province is also home to China’s biggest turbine manufacturer. Should the UK depend for its energy on materials provided through slavery? Yet, there seems to be no plan to expand production of turbines and panels in the UK. Ideology is sending the UK astray.
IDEAS AND WORKING MODELS
More models of best practice in education are likely to exist than just the Dyson Institute and the Michaela Community. Government should identify them and use their ideas, rather than amateur Ministers seeking to impose their social ideologies.
As well as in Energy, the same surely is true in other sectors. Take healthcare. Evidently, there are some incredibly well performing Hospital Trusts, well managed, with staff innovating and adapting for the benefit of patients, some even overcoming to some extent the NHS culture of secrecy and fear. Harnessing these best practices and requiring their adoption across the country in all healthcare is a relatively cheap way of scoring and winning. This country is famous for its inventiveness, resourcefulness and ideas, and perhaps the public sector can learn a lot from the best of the private sector? As to the bigger strategic picture, despite the Health Minister, Wes Streeting, having admiration for the Australian health system which is a mix of insurance and public funding, ideology dictates that the NHS, solely funded by the taxpayer, is the only way of providing healthcare in the UK. As long as that stays the case, the NHS will self-perpetuate, and, for example, it will never afford proper wages for doctors and nurses. New ideas in the NHS, unless politically correct, go nowhere it seems. Do they yet refer to maternal women as women? Ideology prevails over ideas, and yet there are multiple different models of more successful health systems in the developed world delivering better outcomes for patients than the NHS.
Would it not be a good idea for the UK Government to find the best performing Government departments and roll out best practice across the public sector? And encourage the same in the private sector? Ideas must trump ideology, or at least three critical sectors, education, energy and health, will fail to advance for the benefit of UK society. Copying the best is often a good start to becoming the best.
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