Young People And Decisions
I love talking to young people. Exploring their ideas for the future, thinking about their hopes and their dreams and taking the time to explore different notions about how things should or shouldn`t be, is insightful and rewarding.? The conversations often bring ups and downs, light bulb moments and frustrations.? But, it serves as an important reminder about how often young people are or are not, included in discussions about their own futures and it serves as a reminder that there really are some aspects of societal living that need to be taken out of the hands of politicians and their four-year strategy for re-election and given to independent bodies.? When we think that the UK is on their eleventh Secretary of State for Education since 2010[1], who is listening?
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This week I have had numerous discussions, and I thought it might be interesting to explore those conversations to see what this might mean in an educational and political context. Today, for example, I was discussing the concerns of a student who has missed a letter grade by five marks in her recent A Level examinations. ?The consequence of this, which can be explained by misreading and then answering the wrong question in an exam, not her overall ability, has been rejected from her course of study at university.? Such a binary decision has massively affected the life chances of a student struggling through the highly political quagmire of examinations.
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Another conversation revolved around the pre-election Tory proposal for National Service. Opponents to the idea labelled it as a gimmick designed to win votes and the headlines suggest it lacked substance.? My conversation today highlighted the many ways the scheme could have been launched, how it could have really benefitted young people and how it could have made a marked difference in the lives of young people who are often underinvested in. Imagine if, as part of the national service scheme, young people were given more opportunities. An opportunity to take a route into the army, an opportunity to train as electricians, the opportunity to train in a skills-based field. Because, at the root of it, it feels that the lack of opportunity for many young people is having an impact on their future chances of doing what they want to do.
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Admittedly not all conversations are about serious topics.? Sometimes the topic of marriage comes up, or what is the greatest song of all time (clearly Separate Ways by Journey or Mr. Jones by Counting Crows), or football, rugby, the Olympics and so on.? But, in a week where a lot of futures will be decided by examination results, it seems pertinent to raise the expectation that we involve our young people in as many decisions as possible.?
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I strongly believe we have to stop ignoring the views of our young people, they need to be involved in the conversations and, as pointed out by UNICEF “Business executives, government ministers and civil society leaders must come together and join forces with young people?to address the systemic challenges that hold youth back from reaching their full potential”.[2]? In addition, it feels high time to celebrate educational diversity, rewarding students for pursuing the academic pursuits they love, providing choice and opportunity, rather than a fixed one-size-fits-allrailway track to a successful education.? We need to ensure that education becomes the great social leveller it is meant to be, rather than supporting a system where “children from poorer backgrounds do worse throughout the education system.” [3] ??It feels that this may be an intentional desire from those who do make the decisions about education and reform in education.? Most telling is the following from the 2022 IFS Education Inequalities Report where it demonstrates that:
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Over the past 15 years, the size of the gap in GCSE attainment between children from rich and poor households has barely changed. Although the total share of pupils achieving these GCSE benchmarks has increased over time, children from better-off families have been 27%-28% more likely to meet these benchmarks throughout the period.[4]
In 2024, more and more young people will face results of varying kinds.? In 2024 more and more young people will have decisions made for them determining whether they can go to university, whether they are needed for whatever will be substituted in place for the idea of national service, whether they can progress to the next year of study, and this is following years of education being done to them.? I know there are schools that dine out on their results, that celebrate the A*-B results (accidently suggesting that a C or below is a terrible result), but that doesn`t mean there isn`t room for change.
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I love talking to young people. They never stop dreaming about a better world, about better outcomes, about better ways of doing things. They will challenge the views of politicians, teachers, parents and other young people if only we take the time to let them express their voices. But for me, maybe now, more than ever, is the time to start listening.