Education Culture and Sport Committee

Coping with Change and Uncertainty

We deceive ourselves if we believe that change is either more dramatic or at a greater relative speed than that faced by previous generations. The new millennium has made us more sensitive to change, but has not altered the amount of change. Coping with change is simply part of the human condition. Mankind is very adaptable. Moreover, new generations born into new environments simply absorb that new environment as normal vide the way children are born knowing how to programme a video whilst older generations had to wait for video plus to be developed.

Within this context of change, education is a stable part of the environment. Of some 85 European institutions that have survived from the 16^th century, fulfilling a recognisable and sustained function, 75 are Universities. The others are bodies such as the Papacy, the British Monarchy and the Bank of Sienna. Education is at the cutting edge of change, indeed it is often the starting point, and so it is most adaptable. In contrast manufacturing and industry have relatively short lives as new and better products constantly come on stream.

We have regularly to update skills but knowledge is more durable and can be built upon. To paraphrase Einstein, we see further because we stand on the shoulders of giants. So, the theory of electromagnetism, developed by James Clark Maxwell in the 19^th century, is fundamental to the subsequent development of modern ICT.

With the basis for ICT, cloning and space travel already established, it is hard to anticipate what discoveries will revolutionise the 21^st century in the way that the 20^th century was revolutionised. It has been suggested that if the 20th century was dominated by physics, the 21st will be the age of life sciences. However, one likely change is already apparent - population decline. In 1964 there were just over 104,000 live births in Scotland. In 2001 this was down to 51,000. On current birth rates, this will fall to 40,000 within 25 years. The first effect of this is an ageing population. The next step will be population decline.

Key Question How can the education system help children and young people to cope with high levels of uncertainty and the rapid pace of change?

In many respects education has to offer youngsters the constants both in terms of knowledge and values. It then has to teach youngsters to assess these critically so that they can apply them appropriately.

The role of ICT offers an interesting exemplar. ICT enables information to be transferred more quickly and more completely than ever before. It provides the user with more access to more resources. It enables us to handle vastly more data efficiently and accurately. However, like all technological advances it has limitations. The technology has to work. The information entered has to be accurate. There is a tendency to do unnecessary tasks simply because they can be done quickly and easily. Such unnecessary tasks are often made into requirements but do not significantly add anything. However, because tasks are effortless, produce reams of data, their value is not subjected to critical analysis. It is not clear how much the whole audit industry has contributed to efficiency or progress, although it has been a very good middle class job creation scheme. Moreover, dependence on data processing undermines people's ability to make decisions. For example, in the past doctors were able to diagnose patients' illness on the basis of their professional judgement. Now they are dependent on a battery of tests often to come to the same conclusion.

Education has not been "transformed" by ICT in the way that banking and financial services have, because the nature of the knowledge and skills that are transferred in education is different from the nature of the data and information used in the key area of banking that has most benefited from the use of ICT. In our meetings for the national debate, parents have constantly stressed the importance of the pupil/teacher and pupil to pupil links to the learning process. They see ICT as providing back-up in terms of information exchange, but not replacing the important pupil/teacher relationship. Recent studies have shown that when the best computer learning is compared to the best teacher-pupil learning, the computer learning is less efficient.

Key Question How far should education encourage children and young people to be capable of engaging with existing knowledge and developing innovative ideas as the basis for questioning authority and social conventions.

It is the nature of childhood to question authority. We use education to generate conformity. It is not clear that we really want too many people to question authority and social conventions. We only want this to happen when we can control the level of challenge. For example the amazing spirit of enterprise and inventiveness that is a feature of the whole drugs trade is not one which society wishes to encourage. Recent studies have shown that truants have the greatest entrepreneurial spirit and yet we invest much energy into ending truancy.

However, education has become more conformist as it has been required more and more to meet centrally imposed targets. The Executive measures schools by league tables so exam results have become critical and education focuses on getting children through exams. Initiative, innovation and challenge are squeezed out of the system by the drive to raise standards because those standards are only interpreted in one way.

The new theme is for diversity, but if we are to have real diversity, we have to remove the trappings of conformity - league tables, measurable targets etc. We have to return to a system of trusting professionals to educate. One of the themes emerging from our parents' meetings is that parents want to see an end to this focus on league tables and examination results. All meetings have produced the same message - parents want the school week expanded, with the extra time given to Art, Music, PE and Drama taught by specialists.

Citizenship is a term used very loosely. On the one hand there is the concept of a good member of society who does his/her duty and picks up the litter. On the other hand citizenship is about people engaging in the democratic process. However, those with power in the democratic process do not actually wish citizens to engage and change the course of an action. They merely want the appearance of engagement. Politicians regard people voting as being good but people rebelling against policy as being bad. On the other hand, we have a representative democracy, which means that politicians have to make decisions on behalf of people, based on their better understanding of the facts. What is necessary for this form of democracy to work is for politicians to explain their actions openly and honestly, not distorted through ubiquitous spin.

In truth citizens have to be

• critics of the state
• able to stop its excesses
• able to exercise judgement between clearly different courses of action

When the state merely responds to popularity polls, and all parties fight for the middle ground, there is no choice for the citizen to make and so engagement is pointless.

Key Question Is what we are currently doing in schools an adequate proxy for what we think education ought to do?

It is frequently said that a teacher of forty years ago could walk into a class and take up as though there had been no change. In fact, the education children receive today is very different from that offered forty years ago.

• The curriculum has changed both in terms of subjects on offer and the content of subjects.
• The style of teaching has changed. There is more student participation.
• There is more inclusion. Youngsters are not put into different categories and taught separately.
• Children are less deferential and more challenging.
• Although as a society people are much healthier and live longer, children are less fit and more obese.
• The gender gap has been reversed.
• Female characteristics of diligence and care for details are now more valued than the traditional male characteristics of strength and co-ordination. If this is a problem, it is for society as a whole, not just for education.

Education has become a positional good. The prevailing wisdom is that there is only one route to succeed - through continuing or higher education. We have a very middle class desk bound view of the world whilst bemoaning the shortage of good plumbers, joiners or long distance lorry drivers. We need to get the balance right in society at large and not place so much emphasis on one type of activity.

Key Question Is there something distinctive and special about the way that Scotland should respond to change?

One product of improved communication links is the globalisation of culture. Throughout the world people can enjoy the same music, have the same idols. Scottish youngsters participate in this global culture. However, Scotland still has its own distinctive culture which is the product of its history and the population movements that have characterised that history. Scotland has been more successful than many countries in exporting its culture and thereby contributing to the global culture. This change is inevitable, but it its highly likely that local differences will continue so that the global culture enjoyed in Thailand will be different from the global culture enjoyed in Scotland. Culture changes as it is passed from generation to generation, with myth often replacing truth and being a more powerful influence. Culture is dynamic. Artificial culture has little meaning. It is not possible to preserve that which is not relevant to the next generation, therefore if there are some aspects of Scottishness which seem particularly important, they will only continue if youngsters are convinced of them.

Key Question What skills are needed to make sense of large amounts of information and to bring them together into a coherent response?

As learning to talk and count are early and essential human skills, so literacy and numeracy are central as they form the basis for communication and the exchange of ideas.

Thinking skills and analytical skills are essential if we are to make sense of the information which is available to us in the 21^st century and if we are not to get swamped by minutiae. However, the practical skills needed are constantly changing. The headline that "grey surfing is increasing" shows how able and willing people are to adopt new skills when they see their relevance.

Key Question Are schools the right places for all young people?

In our public meetings, parents made it clear that they thought that schools were very important because they gave a social context to education. However, there was a recognition that some youngsters at some stages did not fit easily into the school environment. ICT was seen as valuable in supporting home learning if youngsters by reason of health - both physical and mental - could not attend school.

There was no support for streaming but there was support for more diversity, in particular recognition that not all youngsters thrive with a conventional curriculum. We have already mentioned the call for an extended school week to incorporate more Art, Sport, Music and Drama. The idea of modern apprenticeships being offered in secondary school was also supported. For some youngsters there is a need to link education more directly with work opportunities in order to make it seem relevant. The converse of this was also stated strongly - that university was neither a desirable nor necessary route for all youngsters or for all work.

In terms of the links between primary and secondary, there was no support for having all-through education but there was an interesting discussion on whether the secondary system of subject lessons should be introduced into P6 and P7 or whether the topic-focused teaching of primary should be used in S1 and S2.

Finally, in terms of life-long learning, recognition should be given to all the informal learning that takes place outwith the educational system. This starts for children in the home where parents play a critical role. People were keen that school did not intrude or take over this role. This informal learning continues through life as individuals learn from each other. It is important to recognise that learning does not always need to be certificated in order to happen.

01 Jun 2002