Going back to basics again to teach children simple skills

By Howard Cheeseman, secondary school teacher for 30 years

Last updated 16:28, Monday, 26 May 2008

It was August 2006. The notice on the door read: “Do Not Disturb: Meeting in Progress”. Inside, various bigwigs of what used to be called the Department for Education and Science squirmed uncomfortably in their chairs.

Earlier that week, just as the GCSE results were about to be published, the Confederation of British Industry had issued a report which expressed their view that youngsters were uniformly poor at simple mental arithmetic, incompetent with percentages, had illegible handwriting which showed little grasp of grammar or correct spelling.

Even in the wake of the impending record results which showed that the number of students gaining grades A-C was at an all-time high, this was a severe body blow and a damaging media strategy.

Something would have to be done.

The impression of an illiterate and innumerate workforce was not good for business – commercial or political.

How about a renewed concentration on the basics?

Some of you will remember the Back to Basics campaign of many moons ago.

Indeed we have been repeatedly returning there so many times in education that it is a wonder that we are not by now painting cave walls as a method of communication. Undaunted, the officials came up with the idea of pass or fail tests which would assess competency in literacy and numeracy.

And in order to hammer home their importance, no child would be able to gain an A-star to C grade at GCSE without passing these tests.

But what should they be called? Certainly the word skill would have to be in the chosen name since there is a current obsession with labelling and reducing much in education into neat little teaching packages with this heading.

Sadly, Core Skills, Basic Skills, Study Skills, Key Skills, Essential Skills and even Skills for Life had all been used in the past 10-year Skillathon.

Full marks then, for the inspired choice of ‘Functional Skills’ which is what they have become christened.

If you have a child in Year 7 then you may not have realised it but your little pride and joy will have to achieve Functional Skills Level 2 in maths, English and ICT for the higher grades in those GCSEs to become awarded.

You may also like to know that Cumbria is one of the select areas that is trialling these teaching materials and tests in readiness for it becoming a compulsory requirement in 2010.

Have fun at your next secondary school parents’ evening by asking what arrangements are in place for these Functional Skills tests?

Watch the face of the teacher very carefully.

The question that begs to be answered is why, after so many initiatives geared to improving the standards of literacy and numeracy in our young people, is there still an under-skilled student population?

Could the perceptions and therefore this premise be wrong?

Could it be that concentration on skills for their own sake is a de-motivating activity?

Perhaps some robust research is needed here to ascertain whether we do in fact need to get out our chalk and slates for yet another trip back to basics?

Whatever the outcome of such a study would uncover, it raises a central debate on the relationship between the demands placed on people by the workplace and the role of education in meeting those needs.

Schools should not be merely training grounds for the world of work and workplace skills are surely the responsibility of employers.

Education is not training and instruction; it is instead, as eloquently expressed by Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), “. . . the making visible what is hidden in a seed”.