David Cameron: we need elitism in schools
David Cameron will signal a return to “elitism” in schools in an attempt to mend Britain’s “broken” society and secure the economic future.
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The Prime Minister will attack the “prizes for all” culture in which competitiveness is frowned upon and winners are shunned.
In a significant speech, he will outline Coalition plans to ensure teaching is based on “excellence”, saying that controversial reforms are needed to “bring back the values of a good education”.
Failure to do so would be “fatal to prosperity”, he will say.
The comments mark the latest in a series of attempts to focus on education in response to the riots that shocked London and other English cities last month.
They follow the announcement by Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, of back-to-basics discipline in state schools. He plans to give teachers more freedom to search pupils suspected of carrying banned items and to let them use reasonable force in removing the most disruptive children from the classroom.
Mr Cameron will seek to move the debate on to standards, saying that a rigorous focus on the basics is needed to give young people “the character to live a good life, to be good citizens”.
The Prime Minister will say: “For the future of our economy, and our society, we need a first-class education for every child. Of course, everyone’s agreed on that.
“The trouble is that for years we’ve been bogged down in a great debate about how we get there. Standards or structures? Learning by rote or by play? Elitism or all winning prizes?”
Mr Cameron makes it clear that he is in favour of elitism and not prizes for all.
He will add: “These debates are over – because it’s clear what works. Discipline works. Rigour works. Freedom for schools works. Having high expectations works.
“Now we’ve got to get on with it – and we don’t have any time to lose.”
Ministers have already outlined plans to insist on at least a 2:2 degree before students join teacher training courses, and to hand generous bursaries to the brightest graduates who want to teach key subjects such as science and maths.
The Government has also introduced the English Baccalaureate, a new school leaving certificate that rewards pupils gaining good grades in academic subjects including maths, English, science, languages, history and geography.
In his speech, Mr Cameron will also champion the opening of the first free schools, state-funded institutions run by parents, charities and faith groups, independent of local council control. Some 24 have opened this month.
The measures have provoked fury among teaching unions who claim they smack of elitism and represent an attempt to dismantle the state education system.
But Mr Cameron will say that free schools will “have the power to change lives”. He will also seek to link improvements in education to mending “our broken society.”
“We’ve got to be ambitious if we want to compete in the world,” he will say.
“When China is going through an educational renaissance, when India is churning out science graduates, any complacency now would be fatal.
“And we’ve got to be ambitious, too, if we want to mend our broken society. Because education doesn’t just give people the tools to make a good living – it gives them the character to live a good life, to be good citizens.”
The comments come days after Nick Clegg said that parents must take more responsibility. The Deputy Prime Minister insisted that teachers should be left to educate, and not be expected to act as “surrogate mothers and fathers”.
Friday, 9 September 2011
David Cameron: we need elitism in schools - Telegraph
via telegraph.co.uk
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