THIS ELECTION... SCHOOLS MATTER!

Another Easter, another election and sadly we are still focusing attention on additional accountability, school choice and competition, short-term outcomes, and data-driven decision-making despite the evidence that any high performing countries and systems are re-examining their structures and policies to move towards learning leadership, beautiful systems and intelligent accountability.

We need schools to have freedom from political and bureaucratic control. We need schools to have stronger active involvement with local communities and we need brilliant teaching that responds to today’s widely varying learners. Educational approaches need to move to the next stage of school improvement – approaches which moves educational authority back from centralised bureaucracies to educators and communities, builds skills and knowledge to suit communities and contexts, and is driven by the inspiring and also basic belief that skills, aptitudes and character are just as important as content and knowledge. We must actively reinvent our educational systems around educational innovation, school designed curriculum, and the powerful and intelligent uses of technology.