Annex
RESERVATIONS OVER PROPOSED EDUCATIONAL CHANGES
I and my Governors are grateful for the opportunity
to be heard before the Committee. I make several points with regard
to the educational changes confronting all schools in Northern
Ireland, particularly those of the post-primary sector.
(i) Change is necessary and demonstrates
a healthy and living entity, thoughtful of the best interests
of all involved.
(ii) Rainey Endowed School would however
express reservation at the sheer volume and extent of change being
brought forward. The change of the administration of the education
system from five Education and Library Boards and the Catholic
Council for Maintained Schools into one education authority is
a dramatic alteration to the system. This will take time to stabilize
and have its practicalities to work out.
The Department of Education are also, through
the Council for the Curriculum Examinations and Assessment, totally
revolutionizing the nature of the curriculum, with a particular
emphasis on the 14-19 age group, giving greater onus to vocational
programmes and widening subject choice. This is again a dramatic
shift in position and one which will raise many challenges to
all schools.
The admissions arrangements to schools have to
be altered by reason of the unsatisfactory use of the Transfer
Test at age 11. The consequence of this is a direct challenge
to the academic nature of many of our schools, especially those
defined as grammar. Significantly, academic selection will no
longer exist and now we shall have a new form of selection, which
will be by post-code. This is inconsistent with policy in England
and Wales. What is particularly upsetting in the current approach
by Government is a lack of recognition of democracy. The people
of Northern Ireland have been consulted extensively, by both a
household survey and by a large questionnaire, they have told
Government what they want and have been ignored.
On top of all of these changes post-primary schools
shall have to come to terms with reduction in funding and falling
demographics.
These challenges facing schools such as Rainey
Endowed must be met and a practical way forward must be found.
It is therefore my intention to suggest several matters to the
Committee:
— There is too much change all at once,
some aspects must slow, be placed on hold or stopped altogether.
— The changing of the administrative
method is announced and should release funding into education.
This should go ahead and the resources released should be carefully
administered.
— The curricular change must be carefully
managed. The proposals by CCEA are described as being "at
the cutting edge" of curriculum design. This does not give
confidence on top of the administrative change. Nonetheless, Rainey
Endowed School would agree that there should be a greater focus
upon the skills required for a modern workforce in a land lacking
in natural resources other than its educated population. Therefore,
whilst we would be concerned that the "cutting edge"
design of the CCEA curriculum might in the long term develop a
"parochial" nature of Northern Ireland qualifications
we would agree that it to should move forward. However, it is
too expansive and shall cause considerable strain upon smaller
schools. It is not unthinkable that CCEA are being used by Government
to form an instrument that shall cause the closure of small uneconomic
rural schools. If these schools are to be closed then so be it
but do so for economics and be truthful, do not hide behind another's
rationale.
The Department of Education rightly states they
would wish academic schools to remain, but that does not mean
the same as the existing grammar schools. It is disingenuous of
the Department of Education to lead us to believe the two are
the same. The Rainey Endowed has historically been a centre of
learning for families from a wide geographic area in Mid-Ulster.
The geographic nature of the selection that must come out of the
Department's proposals shall ensure that the area close to Rainey
Endowed shall dictate who attends this school. This is wrong,
contrary to the much propounded belief by Government in parental
choice and must not be allowed to go ahead. Therefore of the three
major changes this is the one that schools can do without and
the changing system does not need to make as yet.
I trained as a scientist and have taught science
for twenty years. The basic premise of bringing change to a system
is to alter one variable at a time. To alter two variables at
the same time is bad science for how shall it be known what caused
the change and what will be their mutual effect. To alter three
variables at one time is simply silly. However in dealing with
the lives and prospects of the young people of my school and with
those of my own children `silliness' should not come in to play.
There are two other matters that I must comment
upon:
1. The UK economy has been in a very healthy
state in the last number of years yet education is increasingly
being faced with financial cutbacks. The proposals above have
not been costed in any manner. How will we know whether or not
it is worth the financial risk if we cannot assess their worth
with some form of Value for Money Test?
2. The education system within England and
Wales has developed in recent years into a model that encourages
partnership and dialogue between school practitioners and policy
makers. This is totally lacking in Northern Ireland. We very much
live under an us-and-them regime. This is something that I think
is sad and should be addressed as a matter of urgency. It is especially
poignant that David Milliband was recognising such matters in
England and Wales directly in 2003 and ultimately we see much
of this concept of intelligent accountability in the white paper
on education published in the five year strategy for education,
the white paper and the Education Bill.
Finally, living in Northern Ireland means that
one always lives in hope. Hope that we can make things better
for our children and our children's children. If an outsider reflects
upon the proposed changes then this commendable theme can be seen.
However, it could also be interpreted that our system has totally
broken down and needs radically overhauled. This is not so. In
summary I argue that many of the proposals have worth in themselves
but not mixed together in their current form.
I would thank the members for taking time to
read this document and allowing me the opportunity to put a small
case for a small grammar school, loved by the people of Mid-Ulster.
Robert M Robinson
25 November 2005
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