Michael Gove’s speech in January of 2011 presents several keys to how the United Kingdom is revolutionising its educational system. He gives the sad news first: the UK has fallen from 7th in the world to 25th place for literacy; 4th place to 16th place for science; and 8th place to 28th place for Maths.
Thanks to a new way of measuring how well a country’s education system is working (the PISA league tables of international educational achievement, compiled by Andreas Schleicher), we can see at a glance what part of the world is moving ahead the fastest. Thanks to Michael Barber, (who was educational advisor to Tony Blair in the early 90’s) we can also know exactly what it is that makes some countries tops in their quality of education.
Firstly, the most successful nations give top priority to finding and training the highest quality teachers, and making them available to as many young people as possible. Gove explained that the UK will model their teacher training after the successful hospital model; that, as doctors do, teachers will keep learning throughout their career. Also, the highest performing graduates will be encouraged to become teachers, and the UK will give extra support to top graduates in the Maths & sciences to become teachers.
Secondly, the United Kingdom will also increase the number of quality leaders involved in education nationwide, and lend stronger support to those areas with weaker schools. Cooperation between stronger schools and weaker ones will greatly help every student get the opportunities they need to be able do their best.
Finally, the government will allow all the school systems to operate independently as academies, each school making its own decisions on curriculum, finances, organisation etc. that will allow them to operate as the top schools in the world do.