Education: People and The Future

A few people have approached me about how I see education evolving over the next years, especially in the context of COVID-19.

I should say that my initial thought is, “Who cares what I have to say?”. I am no longer involved in education and, when I was, my involvement in the day to day of actual academics was limited at best. The truth is, for me at least, working in education was always about the people. 

Being the misanthropic, socially awkward fellow that I am, I was always most comfortable in my office, managing from behind the scenes. However, my job often called upon me to give speeches, interviews and to meet teachers, students and parents. It was an absolute joy and one of the pleasures of my life. A school is a community like no other, it’s a microcosm of the world. In it you can see the best (and sometimes the worst) of the human condition. It is the scene of some of our greatest triumphs as children and our fondest memories: Our first goal, the first prize, the first truly meaningful friendships, the first kiss.

That interaction is the thing I now find myself missing the most. The way a school wakes up in the morning to greet the staff and students, the interactions and the maddening, improbable and yet perfectly logical problems associated with running a school. Education is thrilling because of the people involved in it. There are no two heads, no two students and no two kitchen staff alike. But there is one common thread and that is passion. Passion for their students, their learning, their sports, their families, their lives or just for the day to day. I discovered it too late

You’re unlikely to ever find an apathetic person in the world of academia. The very word instils a sense of respect and knowledge. Harking back to the Greek “Akademia”, where Plato taught, it has been handed down to us through millennia as a place of reverence and learning.

So now, as I look and think of education through a different lens and with another perspective, I can only think of those people. What impact is this having on their lives, and what impact will this have on the way they work, learn and interact in the future?

Education is, without a doubt, the very and only thing that liberates us. It is what distinguishes us from animals. It’s what allowed us to shake off our feudal overlords and become democracies. It is what makes us reason, debate and question. It’s a dictator’s worst nightmare. When people are educated, when people are learned, they are whole. 

Therefore, to my mind, the future of education is also the future of the world. If we think, or let others make us think, that education is secondary – we are lost. That is why teachers and schools are and will continue to be fundamental, no essential, to our society.

Undoubtedly, rough times are coming for schools. Especially in the private sector. The IMF recently published a report where it predicted a fall in GDP in the US of 6%, in the UK of 6.5% and in Spain and Italy of 8% and 9.1% respectively. This represents trillions of dollars and millions of jobs. When I say millions, for those four countries I’ve mentioned, we’re looking at over 100 million jobs lost (i.e. unemployed). 100 million. I’ll say it again because it actually represents the entire population of the UK and Spain combined – 100 million jobs.

The knock-on effect of that can only be imagined, but it will mean defaults on mortgages, on loans and, of course, on school fees. Entire industries will collapse, and so will incomes of private people and governments. Nobody is going to have a “good crisis”. The result of decisions taken today will represent a burden on our children and grandchildren – with higher taxation and less opportunities than we had. We will have failed in our duty to hand over a better world than the one we inherited. Because, whilst a virus is a virus, we were not prepared, we did not react in time and the decisions that were taken are entirely of our own making. We caused what is to come. Well, our leaders did. They will be held to account, by the ballot box and by history. 

So private schools will suffer. In a world where offer was beginning to catch up with demand and schools were having to fight for every place and every student, this will signify the death knell for some schools, I would even venture to say for many schools. As someone who grew up loving this sector and the people in it, and will continue to do so until the day I pass, the sadness I feel in writing these lines is infinite. There is seldom anything sadder than a school having to close. When the doors of a school close forever, so too go the dreams of the many children, the hopes of adults and the livelihoods of many. 

Teachers, in high demand and increasingly able to pick and choose their destinations, will be thwarted by protectionist measures and immigrations bans. Make America Great Again, will become a battle cry for the small minded and the scared. Equal parts appealing and dangerous. Education has never been more important.  Teachers have never been more important. 

With regards education itself, history has taught us that there is no substitute for a teacher imparting wisdom to his/her pupils. Plato did it. Confucius did it. Helen Keller did it. And Mr and Mrs Smith today will continue to do it. My own experience of education is that there is no room for “virtual teaching”, especially in the younger years. Children need to be away from home, they need to mingle with their peers, they need to learn from someone that isn’t a parental figure. Children need schools. The world needs schools.