Chalk Talk: Where in the world can you find a decent education?

 

First it was Michael Gove wanting to embrace the Swedish schools' reforms to try and inject new life into efforts to raise standards in schools.

Then there was Educom – the new, fashionable name for the Commons Select Committee on Education – whose members quietly slipped out of the country to visit Singapore to see whether this high-ranking country (in terms of performance) could offer us an insight into the successful teaching of maths and English.

The latest country to be included in the quest for the Holy Grail is Japan, which Labour's education spokesman Stephen Twigg plans to visit soon to look at how they have reformed education – it is in the top five of the world's best performing nations.

Expect, therefore, the words "Kounaikenshuu" and "jugyou kenkyuu" to replace "Kunskapsskolan" (the Swedish free school pioneers) in the political education lexicon in the future.

"Kounaikenshuu" is the term used in Japan for the kind of continuous school-based professional development Japanese teachers have that England's teachers can only dream of. "Jugyou kenkyuu" means lesson planning – an important element of "Kounaikenshuu", where groups of teachers meet regularly over long periods of time to work on the design of lessons.

Twigg believes that, if Britain could adopt these concepts, we could have a teaching body that is universally viewed as professionals. "Teachers are skilled professionals," he says. "But if we're honest, they don't have the same parity as doctors."

They do in Finland – another country cited by Gove in his search for nirvana – where teacher training courses are as popular as medical courses are over here. (The Government tends to overlook, though, that Finland also eschews league tables and doesn't have a chief inspector of schools or national curriculum testing.)

My point is not to belittle those who search overseas for answers to our education problems – just to suggest they should not put all their eggs in one basket.

After all, when I was visiting Sweden, I was told of one high-ranking education official I wanted to interview: "He's over in the UK – studying your education system."

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
Top stories
News in pictures
World news in pictures
UK news in pictures
UK news in pictures
More stories
       
Independent
Travel Shop
Lake Como and the Bernina Express
Seven nights half-board from £749pp Find out more
Dubrovnik and the Dalmatian coast
Seven nights half-board from only £859pp Find out more
Prague city break
Three nights from only £199pp Find out more
 
iJobs Job Widget
iJobs Education

Year 6 Teacher / Year Group Leader

Negotiable: Randstad Education Ilford: We are currently recruiting for a Year ...

Key Stage 2 Teacher

Negotiable: Randstad Education Ilford: Key Stage 2 Teacher We are currently re...

Primary Teachers

£115 - £130 per day: Randstad Education Ilford: Primary supply teaching jobs i...

KS1 Primary Teacher

Negotiable: Randstad Education London: KS1 primary teacher needed to work in o...

Day In a Page

'To farm I have to rape the countryside. It’s got to be wrong': The true effect of the badger cull

The true effect of the badger cull

'To farm I have to rape the countryside. It’s got to be wrong'
Theatre review: Daniel Radcliffe gives an admirably honest performance in Michael Grandage's The Cripple of Inishmaan

First night: The Cripple of Inishmaan

Daniel Radcliffe gives an admirably honest performance in Michael Grandage's comedy
Girls Guides drop religious reference but pledge to self and the Queen

Guides drop religious reference but pledge to self and the Queen

After 103 years, organisation changes oath to welcome 'all girls, of all faiths, and none'
Steve Tongue: Joe Kinnear was one of the boys and a breath of fresh air... 21 years ago

Steve Tongue

Joe Kinnear was one of the boys and a breath of fresh air... 21 years ago
Hannah England: I've got the right times – now to focus on the chess

Hannah England: Keeping Track

I've got the right times – now to focus on the chess
Beards, brawn and body art

Beards, brawn and body art

Meet London’s new batch of male models
Scandi-geeks descend on Nordicana for fan-convention

Scandi-geeks descend on Nordicana for fan-convention

British love of shows such as The Bridge, Borgen and The Killing shows no sign of fading
Behind the rhetoric what is really being done to combat desertification?

The Great Green Wall of Africa,

Behind the rhetoric what is really being done to combat desertification?
Laughter Inc: the cheering growth of the chuckle industry

Laughter Inc

The cheering growth of the chuckle industry
The bad science scandal: how fact-fabrication is damaging UK's global name for research

The bad science scandal

How fact-fabrication is damaging UK's global name for research
To the manor born: The female aristocrats battling to inherit the title

Female aristocrats battle to inherit the title

A passionate protest is gathering pace among the women of Britain's aristocracy, who believe that men should no longer automatically inherit the family pile and title.
Love struck: Photographs of JFK's visit to Berlin 50 years ago reveal a nation instantly smitten

In pictures: JFK's visit to Berlin in 1963

Photographer Ulrich Mack accompanied Kennedy on the entire trip. The results are an astonishing record of a watershed moment.
Eat shoots and leaves: Mark Hix gets creative with fresh peas, mangetouts and sugar snaps

Mark Hix gets creative with English peas

English peas and their offsprings, such as mangetouts and sugar snaps, are great tossed into a salad, says our chef.
Ceviche with a smile: Chef Martin Morales has turned South America's elegant cuisine into one of London's hottest food trends

Chef Martin Morales: Ceviche with a smile

Morales has turned South America's elegant cuisine into one of London's hottest food trends
Incredible edible: Guerrilla gardeners are planting veg for the masses in West Yorkshire

Incredible edible: Guerrilla gardeners

Holly Williams joins the volunteers who have turned a small town into a thriving community with a guerrilla gardening scheme that has provided a blueprint for sustainability.