So, GCSE and A-level results have been & gone. The media (online and print) have made their comments, and not all of those comments have been positive, some of which I wrote about last week (link here).

Successive governments have promised to ‘fix the system’, which is an admirable aim, but successive governments have not done this, and I doubt the white paper on more educational reforms due next month with be full of ideas that will make much of a difference. I will write about this when it comes out, and if I am wrong, I will hold my hands up and admit it.

I strongly believe that the main reason why education isn’t getting better, and for many, including the square pegs, it is getting worse, is for two main reasons. The first is that education is now monetised. The amount of government funds it costs to educate a young person from 5 – 16/18 needs to be repaid in the amount of tax that young person will contribute to society from when they finish their education to when they retire. The second is that the educational reforms are not driven by teachers, students or people in the classroom. They are decided and driven by politicians and civil servants.

I’ll talk about monetisation first. I fully accept that there isn’t a magic money tree, and that governments can’t keep borrowing more and more money. However, I don’t think that each piece of the government purse needs to be looked at individually. Education and the NHS are intrinsically linked. There is a mental health crisis in the UK, especially among under 25s. The waiting lists for CAMHS (Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services) are colossal. In 2022/23, almost one million children were referred to CAMHS, which is 8% of the child population. Of these, over 270,000 were still on the waiting list, and over 370,000 had their referral closed before they could get support – this may be because their parents paid for private support, because they reached 18 and were no longer eligible for CAMHS and would now have to access adult services, because they moved or missed an appointment, or for other reasons. Over 40,000 young people had been waiting for more than 2 years (the source of all of this is available here).

If we improved education so that it didn’t have such a negative impact on many young people’s mental health and well being, if we had more staff trained to spot the early signs of depression, anxiety, OCD, eating disorders etc, and if schools were more ND/Square peg friendly, this would reduce the amount of young people struggling and seeking help from CAMHS. The amount of children home schooled (EHE – elected home educated) or EOTAS (educated other than at school) is also increasing, another sign that the current education system does not meet the needs of all our young people.

We don’t need education reform, we need a complete overhaul of the system. Despite increased testing throughout school (I’ll come onto this in a moment), over 40% of those taking English and maths exams this summer did not get a grade 4 or above (grade 4 is the equivalent of a C grade with the old marking scheme & O-levels). Either the testing is wrong, or the education system is not geared up for 40% of young people taking exams. Now, not everyone is capable of passing 3 maths papers and 2 English papers. Not everyone will get to the grade 4 standard, however we assess them. But something needs to change so that more people are not held back by being part of that 40%. Maths and English passes are needed for so many future opportunities, from achieving a level 3 or higher apprenticeship, to some vocational qualifications (vet nursing and farriery are two), for teacher training, for university and more. I have taught some amazing people who worked in residential children’s homes or care homes. They were fantastic at their jobs, and they were respected within their teams, but because GCSE or Functional Skills exams were difficult for them, they could not achieve their level 3 qualification.

Repeated testing from KS1 (age 5-7) all the way through school to GCSEs and level 3 qualifications will not improve how young people learn. As a biologist, I know that there is no such thing as an average human, and even more so when we look at young people. We do have average milestones, and if a baby or toddler is very late reaching one or more, that can be a cause for concern, but all people learn and develop at different rates. Both of my children, for example, were out of nappies months before their second birthday, but didn’t sleep through the night til they were 3 or more. A friend’s son slept through from about 6 months, but was in nappies til he was almost 3. My children are no better or worse than hers, they just developed differently. Testing little children for how they hold a pencil, how long they can sit still, if they can spell their name, if they can read 10 high frequency words and then keeping these results is, in my opinion, worth very little. Teachers, TAs and nursery nurses do need to keep track and make sure that children are learning, but this can, and should, be learning through play, conversations, games and stories rather than teaching them to hit milestones.

As we move up into KS2, the end goal is SATs that are taken at the end of year 6, just before secondary school. These assess English, maths and science, not how well an 11 year old can hold a conversation, or how well they understand the world around them, or how amazing they are with their hobby. More assessments through KS3, and then formal assessments at 16. More and more testing and teaching to benchmarks obviously isn’t working for over 40% of young people as they are not hitting the benchmarks at 16.

What’s the answer then? Well, I think the first step in education is to start with developing a love of learning, and learning for pleasure and to find out interesting things, rather than being taught how to regurgitate information in a test. We then need to make lessons fun – for the teachers as well as the students – so that inquiry and desire for more information grows. At that point, there is a purpose to writing and reading, and numbers start to matter (how tall was a T-rex, how many goals did Harry Kane score last season, for example). Once there is a purpose to the fundamentals, there will be a motivation to develop them and master them.

If I was to grade the education system in the UK, I would give it a 3 (or a low D). There are some good parts, there are some outstanding classroom staff, but, as a whole, it isn’t hitting benchmarks and must do better.