Hey all! This week we had probably the best lecture so far this term for What is Education, and that was with Jane Davidson, who used to be Minister for Education, and is now involved with Trinity College. She talked briefly about the history of education in government then about why she and others wrote The Learning Country in 2001.
1983 - National Curriculum founded by Thatchers government. She wanted upils to have the same experience wherever in the country. There was massive opposition from teachers as their freedom of how and what to teach would be comprimised. The government then devised the SAT's tests which would be sat three times at the ages of 7, 11 and 14. They did this as everyone would be assesed using the same test. The new curricuum was based on structures and the government were confident on the level of learning.
1997 - change of government to Labour. They thought that between 1983 and 1997 education was too structured and it was training not educating children, and that there was no freedom to learn. People were angry at the time due to the opinion that children were being taught for tests, and that childrens ability to engage in learning was going backwards. So in Wales in 1997 the referendum for the National Assembley was introduced and was put into place in 1999.
This is when the Welsh government decided to take action on Education, originally there was 2 ministers; one for pre 16's and one for post 16's education. In 2000 Rhodri Morgan became the 1st Minister for Education. Jane became minister in 2000 and helped to develop The Learning Country, as the structured education system needed to be changed. It focused on help for learners or the next stage and what you wanted to do in life.
We also found out that The Learning Country was a 10 year strategy (2001-2010) as it takes time for it to develop and sustain. 90% of this is still in education today and still underpins the government's views on education.
All in all a brilliant lecture, toodles!
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