It is a failure and frankly a tragedy that almost a third of our young people do not achieve a grade 4 “pass” (old money, grade C) at GCSE in English and maths. What’s worse, for those regarded as “disadvantaged”, the odds are even more stacked against them, with three-fifths not achieving this grade 4+ standard. The subjects are the bedrock of education. According to research into census returns by the Office for National Statistics, they are crucial to employment, good health and even life expectancy.
People who struggle with them are more likely to feel disengaged and less well-served by the democratic process, and they are disproportionately represented in the courts and prisons. It is not hyperbole to say that “failure” in these subjects is life-changing.
Off the back of comparatively strong results (but definitely not strong enough) in these subjects, Milton Keynes College Group has been awarded a million pound grant by the Department for Education to try to address this unsustainable situation. We’re organising a network of forty FE Colleges across the South East, London, the East of England and the East Midlands.
The intention is for everyone to share best practice so we can all replicate what works and avoid experimenting with what doesn’t. One of the reasons we’ve been fortunate enough to be awarded the grant is because of our experience in the prison education sector, where we already operate a similar model of sharing ideas and techniques across nineteen prisons.
