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Tuesday 13 October 2015

Are we preparing our students for the wrong world?

The UK's primary production is declining.  Our fishing fleets are devastated, and mining almost extinct. Oil production being exhausted, and farming is being taken over by imports.  Manufacturing in secondary production has all but disappeared, with shipbuilding almost non-existent, and the construction industry has reduced owing to austerity.

That leaves the tertiary production sector as the major contributor to the national economy and sources of employment.  Within the sector, more and more professionals and employees are working from home, reducing travel time, the requirement for large offices, and the daily commuter slog.

The only nod to this changing world in education is to insist on computer coding being introduced again into schools.  So the question is ...... what are they going to code.  UK information technology companies, almost without exception, farm their coding specifications out to India, Kuala Lumpur and China.  The level of basic salary that exists in those countries would not be feasible in the United Kingdom.

So what should we be doing?  I believe we should be preparing our students for the new world.  Instilling the discipline to work at home, or in a library, or youth club.  We should be reducing the physical size of schools but building them to higher specifications and upgrading the technology as it develops, not trying to catch up once it has moved on.

More emphasis on the user than the programmer training.

By having a rotating three day week in school, with the additional two days being logged on to a 'virtual classroom' completing MOOC-style courses, that preparation for the future will begin.  There will, of course, be those children who will not or cannot accept these changes, (no different than with today's model) but there are many school refusers and students with long-term illnesses that would thrive along with the rest of the school population.  Those not succeeding would be required to attend all five days at school.  I cannot think of a better motivator for the disinterested than to work towards being allowed out for 'homework days'.

I know that at the moment I may be in a minority of one, because traditional thinking clouds an open mind.  But before shooting me down in flames please at least think about this first.  Something has to change, and soon.  We must stop teaching in a 19th Century way, but using technology instead of slates and blackboards.

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