Bringing down the ‘wall’

As the political machine gears up toward the next general election, there is no doubt that education is a political priority for all parties. Everyone, it seems, has been infected by the current trend or fashion of comparisons. Internationally, PISA leads the field while domestic comparisons have recently been made between teaching and pupil achievement in the state and private sectors.

Although such comparisons have some merit, there will always be political, academic and teaching pro and anti lobbies for them.

Politicians simultaneously praise the teaching profession for embracing change and its pace, and disenfranchise it by prescribing the curriculum and how it is taught. They also hold the private sector up as the exemplar to which all state schools should aspire in order for our education system to be world class.