Education and Skills - Seventh Report

TRANSFORMING EDUCATION

180. As we said earlier, there needs to be a proper discussion about what transforming education actually means. One witness told us

"Henry Ford used to quip that when asked what people wanted in the way of transport, they were likely to respond with 'a faster horse.' That's a real problem for modernisers caught between the realisation that the current ways of working in schools are outmoded, but future models remain unproven."

181. The DCSF website emphasises that 'diversity and collaboration' are 'the two main vehicles for raising standards and driving improvements in teaching and learning'; but it has not provided a clear steer on what changes schools need to make on the ground to transform education. As a result schools will assume that it probably favours the 'faster horse': more of the same, with better levels of attainment generally and more intensive use of ICT. If it does want to be more imaginative—and we believe that it should be—then there needs to be a more explicit discussion of what might be done. There should not be a prescriptive approach, but, as we suggested with our recommendations on One School Pathfinders and Ofsted, schools and authorities should be supported and encouraged by the DCSF, and by Ministers in particular, to explore new approaches which may help to improve attainment overall and particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds who typically have low levels of engagement with the school system.
 

182. We have recommended that there should be a knowledge and learning strategy to share and resolve issues arising from the BSF procurement and design process. It would be equally valuable to have a more systematic approach to sharing innovations in pedagogy and approaches to learning as part of the process of enabling local authorities and school leaders to come to judgements on how they might address the question of transforming education, perhaps through a new national centre for pedagogy.
 

Scrutiny of Building Schools for the Future

186. Finally, we regard this report as the beginning of the process of scrutiny of Building Schools for the Future, not as an end in itself. This inquiry has ranged over a very large number of issues, not all of which we have been able to discuss here in the detail that they deserve. We encourage our successors to examine how the difficulties we have identified are addressed, and we look forward to seeing the schools as they open. The Government's increased capital expenditure on schools is welcome; the task now is to ensure that is spent as effectively as possible.