As schools go back, Ruth Kelly offers a New Plan for a brighter future 

Schools are back this week — to the relief of parents, most of whom have acquired a new respect for professional teachers after months of vainly attempting to turn homes into classrooms. To mark the occasion this morning we are delighted to publish one of the most important essays ever to appear on TheArticle. “A New Plan for Schools” is exactly that: an outline of what could be the greatest educational reform since the 1944 Butler Education Act. We strongly urge you to read it and pass on the link.

Ruth Kelly, the author, has been a Labour Secretary of State for Education and Skills (2004-5, pictured), besides holding Cabinet portfolios for Transport and Communities. Until recently she was Pro-Vice Chancellor of St Mary’s University, Twickenham. She now serves on the Vatican’s Council for the Economy, having been trained as an economist at Oxford and the LSE. Last but not least, she is a mother of four.

Ms Kelly, in short, knows the British state education system from top to bottom as well as anybody alive. It would be otiose to attempt to summarise her article here; her prose has a luminous clarity that is rare in the jargon-filled world of educationalists. What would, if her proposals were implemented, be the Kelly Education Reform Act rests on four main pillars:

1. Reform the examination system to meet the individual needs of children
2. Recognise pupils’ cultural, moral, physical and spiritual needs by extending learning beyond the classroom.
3. Address the disengagement of many teenagers during the pandemic by letting them choose to combine work and school from the age of 14.
4. Teach the teachers throughout their careers, enabling them to deliver the flexible education that they will require to succeed at work and in life.

While it is important to grasp the radicalism of the Kelly Plan, it is also vital to understand what it is not. This is no woolly-minded proposal to remove rigour or to dilute standards. With experience of both private and public sectors, Ms Kelly knows what universities and employers expect of students. She values traditional classroom teaching, but she recognises that not every adolescent responds to the same academic methods. Rather than fetishise written exams, we should enable students to create a portfolio of work to demonstrate their skills, including presentation and problem-solving. 

Independent schools already provide many of the opportunities that the Kelly Plan envisages extending to all pupils. The unequal contest between private and state institutions has only been exacerbated by the chaos of the past year. Distance learning and online teaching have scarcely been a reality for a substantial minority of the less fortunate. Yet the disruption and disaffection that are bound to add to the task of many, if not most, schools is also an opportunity to rethink our education system. To borrow the language of faith: as a nation, after the crisis we need a process of discernment to decide what really matters in education and how we can make good the sacrifices of the younger generation.

Here at TheArticle, we have tried to help readers to form their own views by offering as broad a range of opinion as is compatible with a civilised society. Some of our articles on education are highly practical, such as the advice on how to teach your child online from the legendary headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh, founder of Michaela Community School. We offer Ruth Kelly’s contribution in the same spirit, but in the hope that it will stimulate a cross-party political debate about the future of our schools. 

It would be a miracle if the present Conservative Government were to pick up this gauntlet, thrown down by a former Labour Education Secretary. Yet there is nothing in the New Plan that Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak or Michael Gove should seriously disagree with. This is a plan to level up British society by giving the many opportunities now available only to the few. Just as RA Butler’s 1944 Education Act transformed state education in the middle of a world war, so the New Plan for Schools offers the only coherent prospectus for a post-pandemic reform of the British education system. Butler is often credited with (or blamed for) turning Britain into a meritocracy. The Kelly Plan is not anti-meritocratic, but recognises that merit may take many different forms. If the Prime Minister really cares about the next generation — which includes his infant son, Wilfred — he should pick up Ruth Kelly’s plan and run with it.

A Message from TheArticle

We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to make, one that’s needed now more than ever, and we need your help to continue publishing throughout the pandemic. So please, make a donation.