Our education system is the foundation of everything we would like to achieve as a country – improving life outcomes for all young people, providing the right skills for a digital economy, preparing students for fulfilling lives and exciting careers, and maybe most importantly, allowing us all to engage with the global challenges that are affecting all of our lives.
However, the education system as it is currently set up is failing to meet these expectations. Too many young people are leaving education without the right knowledge and skills; too many young people are forced to narrow their subject choices and therefore their opportunities for progression; too many teachers are leaving the profession – particularly from STEM subjects – and are not being replaced due to huge recruitment challenges. The consensus from industry is clear - 93% of UK businesses report a lack of qualified tech talent.
These issues, and many more, need to be addressed. The Royal Society believes the only way to do this is through long term structural reform of the education system, and that to achieve this, we must resist the temptation to apply quick fixes to the bits of the system in most dire need of help. The Government recognised the skills gap and its relevance to our future economy in the recent AI Opportunities Action Plan, and yet the ambition to reboot our skills pipeline has so far been negligible. Instead, we need cross-party consensus that lasts beyond a single parliamentary term, and a commitment to review the system by starting with the question ‘what is the purpose of education?’.
This week the Curriculum and Assessment Review working group published its interim report, marking the halfway point in the year-long review promised by Labour before their election win last summer. At the Royal Society, we welcome that the interim report recognises the huge challenges we all know the system is facing.
However, we were disappointed to see that the report fails to offer any systemic solutions to the problems identified, and we remain further concerned about the lack of long-term ambition for education beyond the next few years.
The report makes assumptions about the success of current assessment structures, despite knowing that a third of students fail to achieve a passing grade at GCSE maths, and that our post-16 system is among the narrowest in the world. In our response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review’s call for evidence back in November, we recommended urgent changes to GCSE resits, and, in the short term, a recoupling of AS and A levels to tackle these exact problems.
In the Society’s view, the Review Group and Government need to think carefully about the bigger picture for education, joining up thinking across all the sectors of government, as every department’s goals rely on an effective educational system. Again, we recommend clarity on the purpose of education for young people - what they should be able to know and do by the time they leave education - and how a long-term structural reform could improve all aspects of the system. This reaches beyond tinkering with curriculum content in individual subjects.
As the Review enters its next phase, the Royal Society urges the review group to use this once in a generation opportunity to be bold and create the education system our young people deserve.
