A Progressive Pathway for Positive Outcomes from the Pandemic: Craig Macartney

Undoubtably the past year has presented schools with unprecedented challenges regarding Careers Information and Guidance. Young people in many ways have borne the brunt of unclear guidance from central government, mental health challenges, examinations, and an economy that has shrunk more in one year than any since 1750.

However, there are undoubted opportunities for young people as the economy emerges from the shadows. Young people are far more agile as “Digital Natives” regarding technology. As a generation they already knew about the mobility of technology, and about remote learning. Teenagers never seemed to find it difficult to operate mobile phones and iPads. Few ever asked them how this would apply to delivering learning and online lessons, until educationalists fully utilised Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Classroom, all of which had been around for Years. Schools must not revert back to the Victorian model of going back to linear educational provision, delivered on a central site, with timetabled lessons. Indeed the best elements of online lessons, parents’ evenings, careers fairs, options evenings, assemblies, and similar events can and should continue to be delivered online.

Flexible working in schools and flexible learning from home should be enhanced. The coercive and controlling models of the past should surely go, so as to prepare young people for flexible working in the future. The days of the mass commute to a central office are gone. Schools should be the catalyst for change in the work place, not the other way around. The days of a fixed 5 day week are gone. People may well choose to go to a central workplace for one or two days per week and work from home for three days. Why should schools be any different? As long as central government invests massively in free access to ICT for all students and super fast broad band, why shouldn’t the teaching profession lead innovative working practices?

We also need to accept the realities of the here and now. After 5 years of self-flagellation- and whichever side of the debate you were on- Brexit is a reality. For young people this means Free Trade Zones, Freeports, Airport Zones, new trading arrangements and a new set of employment opportunities. In the area where I work, Ipswich, we have significant social deprivation. Schools in London 70 miles away receive twice the level per pupil funding, despite having the same levels of social deprivation. If “levelling up” is to become a reality we have to embrace employment that is there, or growing. The pandemic has shown the importance of food retail supply lines, of the need for high level skills in agriculture, and the importance of key workers. The NHS has 20 per cent vacancy rates. Our local university, The University of Suffolk, is going to invest in careers and training in Health and Social Care Jobs.

But how many teachers ever promote teaching, as a stable career with a pension, to their own children? We need to change this culture and promote jobs in education. When it comes to trades, we need to stop talking about T levels and vocational education in a derogatory manner. Status matters. We need to embrace the German culture of promoting engineering, plumbing, electrical and building work. If we are to bring in electric cars, we need students educated and trained to a level that embraces  this change to green energy.

The left also needs to overcome it’s indifference to nuclear energy. In Suffolk, the new reactor in Sizewell can contribute to a green solution to our energy needs,  and provide thousands of jobs. While we embrace renewables and offshore energy, progressives must finally decide to either embrace nuclear energy or do without it.  But without it we risk paying much higher energy bills, as even with innovation it’s not credible to fill the gap in our energy needs with with just renewables, unless we continue to rely on gas.

Free trade areas should not be the preserve of the right. We should use them to promote new green manufacturing and service provision. Lower business rates and National Insurance contributions could attract those industries that make wind farms, pharmaceuticals and vaccines, and electric cars, Such incentives could also encourage high tech science start ups as well as more traditional bases for the growth of online shopping, trade and warehousing jobs.

Staycations in Suffolk could mean a growth in employment in travel, tourism and associated jobs. A more Continental way to eat, drink and entertain that is based outdoors for longer sections of the year will be the norm. Food and drink made ethically, with fewer food miles, is another element of Brexit that progressives should not give up to the right. Are left-wing people in France, Spain, Italy and Germany any less proud of their national produce? You don’t have to be a “Gammon” and watch ITV 3 to appreciate Suffolk sausages or local fish. When did it become right wing to eat local fish and chips?

Schools can be the change. High streets will innovate or die. They need to be greened, have affordable housing, and be centres of leisure and entertainment that promote people above commodity fetishism, retail and the car. People will continue to shop online, but that does not mean there is not a place for a ‘knowledge-based City centre’, used flexibly, and based on the global notion of “15 minute Cities”. Bespoke independent shops have a place, as do high value chains. One boon of the pandemic is a growth in reading, cycling and outdoor space use. If theatre and entertainment can embrace these changes, there could be more opportunities and not less, as town centres embrace change.

Flexible learning will be the norm. Progressive should push the “Open University” online and blended lifelong learning model. Universities, bloated on free cash flows of “Ponzi” loan schemes have systemically failed in the pandemic. Schools remained open for business throughout the pandemic. The global titans of universities were seen as too big to fail. They became arrogant, topping up finance with foreign students paying top fee levels. Some should either shape up to the new reality, or close. Never again should a generation of students pay full fees and accommodation for an online university experience, in their teenage bedrooms at home. Progressives should lead this change as it is working class students who can least afford to pay the opportunity cost of the pandemic.

The Fabian Society was set up as a progressive force for good. While the challenges of the pandemic are yet to fully pan out, we need to be at the forefront of change. I work in a secondary school of nearly 2000 students and remain passionate that the best years are to come for the next generation, but not in the same fields as before. Games designers, Netflix and Amazon are all investing billions in the UK. We need to embrace a green revolution and re-imagine our town centres. But the pandemic has also shown we need hair stylists, house builders, electricians and plumbers. It also reminded us just how crucial the food supply chain is, and that key workers, those in the NHS and teaching are vital to the health and wellbeing of the nation. Vaccines that usually take 7 years to develop can be researched, developed and administered locally. All of these cornerstone careers employ millions. We also need a flourishing creative industry to feed our minds. Sport and associated careers have also shown the national importance they play in lifting our every day lives.

Personally I have had to live with cancer, Covid and blood clots positively during a pandemic. You can read more about my story in my previous blog for this website. Why has the left allowed the right to position itself all over the national debate about education? As someone born on Shakespeare’s birthday and St George’s day, I have always been a firm believer in the messages contained in Orwell’s essay “The Lion and the Unicorn”.

The Fabians need to dream, and create that utopia here and now, and in my day job I will continue to do just that.

Craig Macartney is Head of IAG at Copleston High School, Ipswich, and has been a teacher for 30 Years.

 

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