Education matters

In the UK, England to be exact, the government’s inspector of schools, Ofsted, which is the equivalent of the BQA in Bahrain has recently made a bold statement. Luke Tryl, one of its directors, went on record to say that they don’t actually know if schools previously rated as ‘Outstanding’ actually still were.

This means that the evidence to justify advertising themselves as ‘outstanding’ on websites, school letterheads and banners outside for all to see, just isn’t there. It used to be, but it isn’t anymore … but that’s the same argument as saying that Liverpool used to be Champions League winners.

The reason for this is principally because according to statute, outstanding schools in the UK are not required to have routine inspections if their data, (results) doesn’t dip dramatically, which therefore assumes that just because a school can produce an agreed number of pass rates on paper, it must be using the same formula for ‘success’ and ultimately must be as good as it was the last time it was inspected.

This argument doesn’t take into account that schools who routinely produce acceptable results may just in fact be cruising and if that is the case, then such schools certainly aren’t outstanding, in fact they aren’t outstanding at all.

In the book Raising Standards in Good and Outstanding Schools, the author argues that schools that cruise based on their reputations are doing students, families and communities a disservice because they aren’t embracing the advantages that they have.

For example, if a school knows that it has the teaching expertise, systems and profile to consistently produce above average exam passes, then it needs to look to the broader elements of the school constitution and see how it can be measured outstanding in those areas too.

Identifying other ways in which the school can excel and acting upon them creates enthusiasm and motion in schools. Such attitudes amongst senior staff can liberate the enthusiastic, challenging staff and students in less traditional ways to the ultimate advantage of all.

A school looking for excellence in all areas is a school with life in it and such schools attract the best talent.

These schools are outstanding in spite of their results not because of them and they build on their vision and description of success year-on-year in a spirit of continuous improvement in as many areas as they can.

Such schools, however, are few and far between.

The culture of reliance on exam results to justify how successful a school is, is still going strong, meaning that both in the UK and Bahrain, a school that has a ‘good reputation’ could often be left alone by the inspection authorities.

How these schools produce such results isn’t important and whether a student has made good progress or actually enjoyed their time at school, matters not a jot, but as such schools become ‘institutions’ and slowly turn into ‘ivory towers’ there are young pretenders who know that nothing ever lasts forever … and sooner or later, pride comes before a fall.