Class War

A number of readers will remember Chris Woodhead as a controversial HM Inspector of Schools. Here he looks back on his career and at the education system as a whole, attacking many of the predominant politically correct views that underpin it. In particular, he is highly critical of the Government's view that 'education matters because the economy needs an educated workforce', a position that he describes as brutally reductive and utilitarian. Another target is what he calls 'the lunacy of learnacy', where the pupil-centred approach (often with corresponding downgrading of the teacher's knowledge and experience) has compromised standards; for instance the injunction not to correct spelling and punctuation for fear of inhibiting creative flow. The debate falsely divides knowledge and information from learning and skills, diminishing the former and enhancing the latter. The danger is that education becomes a product and students are customers (all the more so with high levels of debt); that artificial 'learning outcomes' are devised and talk is of tautological 'transferable skills'. Woodhead ranges across all areas of the system in a vigorous and stimulating discussion, concluding that a radical overhaul is required, including a return to some traditional methods and a widening of parental choice. Readers will find themselves fully engaged and will be challenged to think through their approach to the whole process of education.