The Hubris of the Education Sector

For some reason English-speaking countries excel at generating hubris in regards to the education sector. The central governments of Australia, New Zealand and Great Britian are constantly engaged in questionable reforms to fulfil the needs of the 'knowledge economy' (whatever that means). In many respects these countries would be better served by down playing the commercial value of education and instead providing students with honest advice about the benefits and limitations of education.

In the 1980s students were advised that manual work was becoming a thing of the past and that students with high education levels were invariably more likely to obtain higher paying jobs. This was in line with government policy that discouraged teenagers from taking up practical apprenticeships. The result has been a labour shortage in manual trades and a surplus of tertiary graduates. By falling for the hype of corporate managers and academics, that have talked up the 'knowledge economy', the governments of English-speaking countries have helped create major structural problems with their economies which will be difficult to reverse.

University graduates have also had a very difficult time finding work because of the competition between the sexes that has arisen in recent decades. In the social sciences humanities and biology, for example, females now outnumber males by a sizeable margin. Subsequently, competition for suitable jobs is intense and many, if not most, lose out. In the 1960s for example, many males arts graduates from working class backgrounds moved up into good white collar jobs. Today, many male graduates from working and lower middles backgrounds are moving back down into manual work. Similarly, although there has been some occupational mobility among women, this has been offset by big problems in paying off student debt. All this should have been highly predicatable to policy advisers but students going through the education system have been given little warning.

Despite all the reforms initiated by central government basic education standards have fell. More students are finishing school with poor writing skills and weaknesses in basic mathematics. Knowledge of history, geography and hands on science is also declining. Teachers repeatedly deny falling standards but students who look at their parents old school books know better. Modern educators believe teaching facts is unimportant but students can't move onto theory until they have an established body of facts and skills to work with. By all means give a rationale for teaching facts and skills but don't dismiss them as unimportant. Spending on manual skills training is also declining (I certainly remember the metal workshop at my school in the 1980s sitting idol for long periods of time). In countries like Australia and New Zealand a lot of money tends to be put into sports facilities yet only the gifted athletes seem to getting any physical exercise.

If the government's real aim is to increase education standards they could easily follow proven methods from North European countries where basic education standards are higher. Instead they have followed a muddled combination of political correctness and commercialisation. Teaching to children under 16 is often made impossible by discipline restrictions in which teachers are not even allowed to raise their voice in a forceful manner. Market populism reigns in the universities where subjects like American studies receive significant funding despite being neither intellectually or commercially useful. Although left-wing critics are right to point out that struggling students need more support than successful students, they overlook the fact that most students are strong in some areas and weak in others, yet as far as I know, subject based streaming is almost never used in public schools in English speaking countries.

Perhaps the worst aspect of modern education is commercially driven dishonesty. As tertiary institutions have become semi-commercial enterprises, in competition with one another, the needs of the institution have taken precedence over those of the student. Faculties market their subjects in a flattering light and give misleading information about how any graduates find work through their programmes. Similarly, many vocational courses are paded out with unnecessary theory that is not needed for entry-level positions. If governments persist in commercialising education they should at least set up well funded independent agencies to give students real advice about career choices and courses.

At the heart of the hubris surronding education is the outdated belief that education is the key to a nation's economic and social problems. Education can't kick start an industrial revolution, reduce inequality or get a country out of a prolonged recession. If education could do these things Japan and Germany wouldn't be in recession and Russia would be economically equal to the West. Education is only one in a number of factors in economic success and social stability. By over-stating the power of education today's elites make it harder for teachers to actually teach. Teachers are often harassed by neurotic parents and over-bearing civil servants that clamour for incessant reforms. This discourages many of the best teachers from staying in the profession and encourages schools too over assess students and cram too many subjects into the curriculum.

Education should be focused on getting the basics right at the secondary level, promoting high academic standards and discussion in universities, and praciticality in vocational colleges. The drive towards commericalisation and premature specialisation has left many students ill-equiped for the workforce and perhaps more importantly, without the skills or direction to address the mistakes made by today's elites.

Note to any American readers: American studies, as taught in New Zealand and the U.K is a post-modern pop culture course rather than a traditional history course.