PIP

It might be a surprise for the people of the Island to learn that some of the best schools in England were built on the Island. We here refer, not only to formal primary and secondary education but also to vocational training schools.

This is an interesting and pertinent topic in the light of the so-called "City Academies" which the government is trying to promote. But, it would seem that the experience of the people of Portsea Island has much to contribute to far better ideas on education. We dont have to wait for governments to come up with yet more new fangled ideas. Indeed it is ridiculous that people do not dwell upon this important issue to review what has worked and what has not in terms of the lives of those who have passed through different types of educational institutions.

Education is a pretty boring topic when one relegates its management to ministries and civil servants but it becomes a fascinating topic when people take the initiative to participate in its analysis. After all we have all gone through some sort of educational system so who is to say we need to only listen to experts, so-called. It is not difficult, if people are honest, to assess to what extent relative success or failure in life (and what constitutes success being a matter for each individual to judge) was more related to educational or personal strengths and/or weaknesses. To what degree did family influence events? To what extent did peers?

The post-1945 education system in the United Kingdom

In 1944 the Conservative government introduced an Education Act creating the basis for the post-war British education system. The school-leaving age was raised to 15 and universal free schooling in three different types of schools; grammar, secondary modern and technical was provided. The hope was that these schools would cater for different capabilities and school entry was based upon an exam taken at the age of eleven years of age. Somehow educators were supposed to be capable of judging children at this age for their aptitude to benefit from a grammar school, technical or secondary modern education.

The issue of selection

The problem with an exam of this sort is that it is a snapshot of the situation of a group of children who happen to be eleven years old. However, the rate of development of children, depending upon their sibling position and family environment evolves fairly rapidly over the period between 10 and 15 years of age. The real situation seems to be that if the objective is to increase the identification of capable children then testing at say 14 years of age would be better than testing at 13 years of age. Testing at 13 years of age is better that 12 years of age and testing at 12 years of age would be better than eleven years of age. The two factors which "slowed" up development and which would indicate testing at a later date to be preferable were sibling position or the state of affairs of the home environment.

Damaging discrimination

Such a test therefore selects positively only in favour of children assessed as competent at that point in time. This means that the test selects against other capable children whose merits will become more apparent later. The able children who are rejected by the eleven plus represent an individual as well as social cost of the system. Based upon the known characteristics of first borns and later born siblings ¹ it would seem that we in Britain were satisfied with a system of selection which could, indeed, identify an Albert Einstein, a first born. On the other hand the matter of significant concern is that this same system would probably not have identified, and indeed would have "failed" a young Charles Darwin, Thomas Huxley, Voltaire, Gregor Mendel, Malthus or Benjamin Franklin all of whom were later borns. The fact that selection has both a negative and positive impact on capable children does nothing to recommend this process since it is discriminatory. It is remarkable that such potential negative impacts are seldom mentioned nor feature in the debates on selection whereas this should be a matter of central concern.

The missing link

The cost of establishing technical schools with their full complement of workshops and laboratories was higher than other schools and as a result many, in fact most, local authorities never achieved the full tripartite system envisioned under the 1944 act. However, where they were established they sometimes had a positive impact on the prospects of children. This was the result of agreements with some local educational committees to encourage an active monitoring of children who did not pass the eleven plus on the basis of continual assessment. This resulted in those who began to show promise by "catching up" being transferred to either the local technical or grammar school. Some of these children did very well in terms of subsequent school performance as well as entry into higher education. Indeed, Portsmouth provides one of the best examples of this system. The City of Portsmouth, during the late 1940s through 1960s was economically depressed with many low income families where both parents needed to work to earn enough to bring up their families. The Navy, Royal Marines and the Royal Dockyard employed a significant proportion of the population. Thomas McNeill ² , the headmaster of the Technical High School, had noticed than many boys who were clearly extremely able, judged on the basis of their verbal reasoning, were not performing well academically. In some cases this seemed to relate to their position in birth order but also was related to the general cultural patterns of the families. Because both parents were working many children would return from school to an empty house. Sooner or later this led to their going out to find friends in similar circumstances and then they would roam the streets. The lack of parental presence detracted somehow from children completing homework. Many parents were not in a position to assist their children with homework either through lack of education or being too tired from work. Some households did not have any books at all. There was also a contingent of parents, mainly fathers, who worked in the Royal Dockyard who had the attitude that what was good enough for them was good enough for their sons. Thus they expected their children to leave school at 15 and take up an apprenticeship in Dockyard rather than go on to higher education. The Dockyard apprenticeship schemes were apparently quite good in those days. On the other hand when efforts were made to tutor and mentor such children especially with after school activities run by their teachers several of these children "caught up" and ended up doing well. Thomas McNeill frequently expressed the opinion that the eleven plus examination was sat at an age which clearly discriminated against later developing younger siblings or "late developers".

A more productive selection process

Portsmouth, unlike most cities in the UK, had a full Tripartite educational system with five grammar schools (Portsmouth, Northern Grammer for Boys, Northern Grammer for Girls, Southern Grammar for Boys and Southern Grammar for Girls), a Technical High School and several modern schools. They maintained a system of continuous assessment of all children who did not pass the eleven plus and in particular "borderline cases"; this system resulted in a transfer of something like 20-25 pupils annually to grammar or technical schools from modern schools.

This system operated well until the introduction of comprehensive education in 1965 on the basis of Anthony Crosland's policy decision known as Circular 10/65.

Some interesting lessons from the Technical High School

One of the simplistic interpretations of people's capabilities arising from the 1944 Education Act was to associate intelligence with "academic" ability and less intelligence with a "more technical orientation". However, technical school experience showed this distiction to be a false one in that certain individuals were extremely capable all-rounders being competent in technical as well as academic pursuits. According to Thomas McNeill ² and based upon his life's experience with having overseen the education of something like 4,000-5,000 boys, the classification of people into those with a technical or academic inclination did not reflect reality. The most outstanding individuals mastered both areas of endeavour and demonstrated an ability to relate theory to technique and vice versa in an impressive way.

Failed system

In 1965 with the switch to comprehensive education, Thomas McNeill observed at that time that the budgets for comprehensive education were far too low to make it a success and this would therefore cause the egalitarian principle to be exchanged for the futures of children. Indeed, he emphasised that the main bottleneck was good trained teachers with a sense of vocation and with the personal ability to inspire children. These personal qualities are rare and a fundamentally important aspect of the relationship between teachers and their pupils.

Teachers & tutors - the educational bottleneck

Thomas McNeill ² observed that the issue of insufficiency of good trained teachers with a sense of vocation and ability to inspire children would remain a permanent and increasingly critical problem facing the educational system. Indeed, as things have turned out, the shortage of skilled teachers remains the major constraint on good educational provisions. No salary level differentials or setting of performance standards can get round this reality.

Lessons learned?

According to Hector McNeill ³ there seems to be a need to concentrate from early on helping children develop the capacity for learning and discovery through self-teaching. The rigid concept of a teacher mouthing the same content to 30 different individuals is a very inefficient way to teach people of varying ability and interests. By separating students into those able to progress more independently from those who cannot, at any particular stage, is a step towards a more efficient allocation of teaching resources. Some people need teachers and hand holding where as others need tutors who from time to time place their hand on the tiller and point the craft on a truer course for any particular person.

¹ See McNeill, H.W.,"The Briton's Quest for Freedom - Our unfinished journey...", Sibling Position, pp.342, HPC Portsmouth, July 2007.

² Based upon personal communications with T. C. McNeill (1910-2002)

³ See McNeill, H.W.,"The Briton's Quest for Freedom - Our unfinished journey...", Individual Identities pp.207-228, HPC Portsmouth, July 2007.