Education strategies must involve potential beneficiaries
From: Neil Richardson, Kirkheaton.
JUSTINE Greening’s article
(The Yorkshire Post, July 18) on education and economic growth stressed going beyond rhetoric to ‘practical delivery’ via a proper plan and wider strategy.
However, our education system – as it tends to be called – might struggle with plans and strategies unless they involve potential beneficiaries, like teachers, parents, and students, as well as traditional non-teaching committees and exam boards.
Mrs Thatcher’s memoirs mention her unease about the way limited objectives (for the National Curriculum) were read as an opportunity for others to ‘impose their own agenda’.
Apparently, the country ended up ‘with bureaucracy and prescriptive measures’ rather than rigorous, lightweight guidance which classroom staff might welcome. At best, for those teaching in the 2020s, professional life will be clearer.
Justine Greening also believes we all deserve ‘the chance to develop ourselves’.
Unfortunately, despite positive undertones, this phrase might refer to organisational structures where those who are not seeking self-development/promotion are left with an uncomfortable sense of them (who plan) and us (who don’t). Which explicit and operational model of selfdevelopment do schools and college encourage?
From: Mike Padgham, Chair, Independent Care Group, Priory Street, York.
SOCIAL care workers deserve praise not criticism for the amazing way they have fought on the front line in the battle against coronavirus (The Yorkshire Post, July 16).
This is why so many care providers were incensed when the Prime Minister criticised them for not following procedures. The work social care staff have done these past months has been right up there alongside NHS staff, doctors and nurses. They have worked miracles.
They have gone to work every day, putting their own lives and health on the line to care for people with Covid-19. From the very start of the pandemic they were on the frontline of the fight against coronavirus and at times were battling without the right personal protective equipment (PPE) and without a proper testing regime.
For far too long, work in social care has been seen as a poor relation to NHS care work. The pandemic has proved that this should never have been the case and that it has to change in the future.