Education re-boot UK!

Posted on | October 18, 2008 | No Comments

The UK government has taken the bold step of telling the education establishment that it is no longer viable to test the energy, creativity and innovation out of education. But what are two generations of teachers going to do now?

I am worried that they, the teachers have been caught in the teach to test treadmill and won’t be able to get off fast enough!

I am more worried that schools outside of the UK, like in Dubai, that try to be more British than the schools in the motherland will not get off the treadmill at all!

The education system in the UK has been so heavily based on the end goal of SATs that what happens when they are removed?

Teachers have known what they are working for, a good test score. Forever!

Can the old guard actually retool, overnight, to move from the teach to test to the evaluate for meeting standards and objectives through demonstrable work product?

Can the old guard use creativity, leadership, innovation and design priniples to make education relevent for the years to come and not the years that have passed?

Sure kids will be able to read, write and do math… maybe even a bit of design technology. But are the students who are being pulled out of the SAT trap going to be able to think? Are the teachers going to be able to think?

I am worried that thinking has been absent from the mix for so long that new learning curve is going to be rally steep. But one heck of a ride!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article4943354.ece