Steve Besley's Education Eye: week ending 03 November 2023

What's happened this week?

Important stories across the board:

Quite a spread of stories this week.

AI has once again been making much of the running, with leading AI nations this week agreeing to a new regime of safety testing new frontier AI models and signing up to the Bletchley Declaration at the UK hosted Safety Summit. 

Light touch in tone, the Prime Minister hailed the Declaration as “a landmark achievement that sees the world’s greatest AI powers agree on the urgency behind understanding the risks of AI”. How far it will confront what Elon Musk once described as "one of the biggest threats to humanity" remains to be seen.

There was plenty of discussion at the Summit about the various AI related risks, but with both the US and the UK setting up AI Safety Institutes; G7 leaders agreeing on a voluntary code of conduct for AI developers; and a major new report on the future of AI commissioned, a sense of perspective about future development has been created. “I believe the achievements of this summit will tip the balance in favour of humanity”, as the PM put it.

Not everyone will agree perhaps, but the government may feel it has achieved its objective of a balanced regulatory environment, with a leading role for the UK on AI development. ‘AI to the right’ as the New Statesman put it.

Members will discuss progress in six months’ time in a mini virtual summit in South Korea, and meet formally in a year’s time in France. 

Elsewhere this week, with parliament now stood down ahead of next week’s King’s Speech, the general news has offered little respite. 

County councils warned that they were ‘running out of road to prevent financial insolvency’. The Centre for Progressive Policy reckoned that the next government will need to spend an extra £142bn a year by 2030 ‘just to maintain current levels of public services’. And the Child Poverty Action Group reported that many families were ‘terrified’ about the cost-of-living as winter approached. 

In schools this week, the government granted additional funds to the Oak National Academy 'to harness AI to free up the workload for teachers', but not everybody was impressed. 'While we agree with the idea of developing AI to support teachers and pupils, we have to question the way in which this is being done', as ASCL put it.

In other school news, the children’s commissioner reported on the damaging effects of pupil absences: 'Our findings confirm the strong link between absence and attainment'. The report contained a detailed list of recommendations – embracing policies, data, hubs, mentors, and support systems – for improving attendance.

And still on schools, two new reports on tutoring found many schools worried about what would happen once programme funding dried up.

In FE this week, Ofsted reported on business education provision. 'Effective business programmes' it seems, 'include current evidence-based theories, make explicit links between topics/pillars, and build towards a strategic understanding and knowledge of the bigger picture'.

The CIPD published a new report on apprenticeships, with another call for reform of the apprenticeship levy. And AoC chief executive David Hughes identified a number of issues that need discussing with the government. “We have fourteen issues across the five themes”. These included: college staff pay; enrolments this academic year; T Levels and defunding; capita;l and reclassification to public sector status. 

In HE, the Institute of Student Employers published its latest annual report into graduate recruitment, showing continuing demand for skilled graduates. “Students will no doubt be relieved to hear that there are plenty of jobs around, however there is a lot of competition”, the CEO told FE News. The report also noted that 'the number of employers now using AI in their recruitment processes has tripled to 28 per cent in the last year'. 

Elsewhere in HE this week, Universities UK and the QAA offered their thoughts on the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE), and London Economics published another of its economic impact reports on a UK university – on this occasion Queen Mary University, London. An impressive £7 return for every £1 spent last year, apparently.

Finally, one of those ‘not a lot of people know that’ set of facts and figures. 

Next year, according to UNESCO, 2.6bn people will likely go to the polls, with elections being held in the US, India, potentially the UK, and many other countries, in what is being called super-election year. The full list of elections set for 2024 can be seen here

Details were published on a day called by UNESCO to highlight attacks on journalists during elections, and to set out a call for action.  

Links to most of these stories below starting with the headlines.

The top headlines of the week:

• ‘Rishi Sunak announces aim to have AI in every classroom to reduce teacher workloads’ (Monday).
• ‘Most schools to cut tutoring due to cost’ (Tuesday).
• ‘Most teachers don’t believe Ofsted ratings, even at best schools’ (Wednesday).
• ‘Falling pupil numbers add to primary school budget pressures in England’ (Thursday).
• ‘DfE workforce strategy delayed amid uncertainty' (Friday).

 General:

• AI Declaration. The government proclaimed the Bletchley Declaration which saw leading AI nations at the government’s inaugural AI Safety Summit sign up to work together to identify risks associated with AI, to develop appropriate policies for managing such risks and to support “an internationally inclusive network of scientific research on frontier AI safety” with future summits planned.
• PM’s AI speech. The Prime Minister rounded off the UK hosted AI Safety Summit by highlighting four outcomes from the Summit including developing a shared understanding of likely risks that AI poses, supplementing that understanding with a major new report, establishing Safety Institutes to test out future AI models, and agreeing to work together on future developments.
• AI skills boost. The government announced a range of measures on the eve of its major AI Safety Summit intended to boost AI skills development and including 12 new training centres for AI researchers, a new visa scheme to attract AI researchers, and 15 scholarships to encourage international students to come and study STEM and AI related courses.
• Progress report. The Frontier AI Taskforce, set up by the PM to look into risks at the frontier of AI published a further progress report ahead of the Summit showing it had tripled the capacity of its research team, had partnered with 11 organisations, and was rapidly building the foundations for AI safety research. 
• Publishers on AI. Publishing and Authors’ trade bodies welcomed this week’s AI Safety Summit but called on the government to ensure that authors and rightsholders were protected and human creativity enshrined as AI developed. 
• Summit outsiders. Leading civil society, tech and academic players argued, in an open letter to the PM co-ordinated by the TUC, that the government’s AI Safety Summit appeared to be a closed shop with big companies focused on existential risks and with many groups feeling marginalised from a debate that mattered to their immediate futures.
• Funding fair growth. The economics thinktank the Centre for Progressive Policy examined the challenges of maintaining public services at current levels over the next parliament in a new report, putting forward four recommendations to help with this including targeting an additional £19bn pa on areas like adult skills and childcare that have proven impact on productivity, and reforming the tax system.
• Council spending. The County Council Network reported that rising costs and demand, especially from children’s services, were leaving many county and unitary councils in dire financial straits and facing a budget deficit of over £600m this year.
• Retirement trends. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IfS) reported on retirement trends as part of its Pensions Review work with the abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, suggesting that early retirement was increasingly becoming the preserve of the wealthy with poorer people stopping work due to poor health and middle earners tending to remain working to pensionable age to help pay off mortgages and ensure financial security. 
• Youth futures. The British Academy published a range of articles in its latest Journal focusing on the challenges facing young people from climate change, to vocational training to employment, arguing that many of the current issues from conflict to Covid have made thing more difficult for young people around the world.
• Cost-of-living. The Child Poverty Action Group and the Changing Realities project highlighted the challenges facing families on low incomes this winter with survey evidence suggesting some were ‘terrified’ about being able to cope and calling for longer-term investment, preventative action and universal free meals as priorities.
• Child friendly. UNICEK UK confirmed Cardiff as the first UK city to gain UNICEF Child Friendly City status following its work over the last five years in supporting children in key areas such as education, family and culture.

FE/Skills:

• Some concerns. David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges (AoC) called for a meeting with the secretary of state to discuss a number of issues, outlining five in particular including college staff pay and future options, learner numbers and GCSE resit pressures, low T level numbers and the defunding of alternatives, plans for capital funding, and some wrinkles around college reclassification. 
• Business education. Ofsted published the first in what’s intended to be a series of curriculum reviews of provision in FE looking here at business qualifications from L2 to L7 and highlighting good practice such as the provision of ‘pillars of knowledge’ for learner progression, and the use of cross-cutting themes for best provision to aspire to.
• Skills manifesto. City and Guild Industry Skills Board (ISB) published its manifesto listing three priorities including the need for a national framework for post-16 education and skills, a statutory right to lifelong learning, and a more effective funding model.
• Skills report. The CIPD looked at the evolution of skills policy across the four regions of the UK against a background of what it termed ‘megatrends impacting the world of work,’ calling for reform of the apprenticeship levy, more flexible apprenticeship routes, support for small businesses and UK wide employer advice and support as key priorities.
• Skills gaps. Make UK and Infor published a report ahead of this week’s AI Safety Summit showing that while many manufactures were keen to adopt generative AI and were prepared to invest in AI, they were being held back by a lack of technical skills, costs and workplace culture.
• Flexi-Job Apprenticeships. The government set out further details on its portable flexi-job apprenticeship scheme listing the standards and providers for eligible sectors along with their application through approved agencies.
• Spreading the levy. Deliveroo announced it was working with start-up company Multiverse to transfer much of its unspent apprenticeship levy money to a number of small firms to help them with their staff training.
• Skills Bill. The British Chambers of Commerce, which currently leads 30+ Local Skills Partnerships (LSIPs), called for the forthcoming King’s Speech to include a Skills Bill that could formalise such arrangements and help provide the local skills planning and training employers need.

HE:

• Graduate recruitment. Stephen Isherwood, CEO of the Institute of Student Employers (ISE,) outlined on the Wonkhe website the findings from the Institute’s latest survey of student recruitment showing continuing high demand for trained graduates but with employers increasingly dropping standard minimum entry requirements in favour of more flexible recruitment practices. 
• LLE. The QAA called for ‘some simple changes’ to the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) including removing the requirement for modules to be drawn from parent courses and lowering the credit threshold to ten, in a new paper issued as part of its ‘Future of Quality’ series. 
• Evidence response. Universities UK issued its response to the OfS call for evidence on positive outcomes for modular study acknowledging the need for regulation to change but suggesting among other things that this should be transitional and proportionate
• Healthcare education. Universities UK outlined the importance of the government working with UKHE in order to be able to deliver its important Long-Term Workforce Plan, pointing to five priorities that would help with this including boosting the numbers of educators and students, increasing placement capacity, investing in new facilities and improving the learner experience generally.
• AI postgrad conversion courses. The Office for Students published a commissioned interim report into the scholarship programme for students to study postgrad conversion courses in AI and data science suggesting that the programme was on track to deliver the increasing supply of digitally skilled workers needed albeit with some concerns over student eligibility and future funding models.
• QMU. London Economics published the results of its commissioned report into the economic impact of Queen Mary University (QMU) London showing the total impact of its activities in 2021/22 on the UK economy at around £4,401m, a cost benefit ratio of £7 for every £1 spent. 
• Facts and figures. The Save the Student site brought together a range of data, facts and figures on UK university students, collated from its various surveys and reports and covering student population and mental health statistics, drop-out rates, and student spending stats.

Tweets and posts of note:

• “I stayed overnight in my niece's uni halls. Never again. Pass the coffee” | @abbiemann1982
• “The number of students today that came in sopping wet - I mean soaked to the skin. “We didn’t know it was going to rain!” What are they doing? What are the parents doing?? How can you not know?!” | @La_Biologuita
• “Today a wasp the size of a bird was in my classroom. It was so bad I had to send an SOS plea for help. It was eventually beheaded by a very brave teaching assistant. I’m traumatised. It’s November. What’s this mutant super wasp trying to do? Is the end nigh?” | @amymayforrester
• “South Africa has passed a major education bill that could see parents face prison if their children are not in school. Under the Basic Education Laws Amendment, they could be jailed for up to 12 months if their children are truant or not enrolled when they reach school age” | @EDSKthinktank
• “Fact of the day! Art teachers are the most likely to run extra-curricular clubs. Maths are the least | @miss_mcinerney
• “Finally, after also 6 years and me ruining every one’s day by saying, “Ofsted are due…”. They have knocked on the door” | @Oldprimaryhead1
• “I'm doing a course at the moment, and the facilitator is big into flipped learning, and I just don't have time for that bullsh*t. Teach me the content, and I'll squeeze my practice into whatever time I can wring out of my day, but I can't do the teaching bit too” | @MBDscience
• “The first advice I gave my daughter, when she started working, was to delete the first and last lines of her emails. "Why?" "Because the first and last lines are where you apologise for sending the email. No emails I get from men start or end like that" | @caitlinmoran
• “I was having dinner with a world chess champion and there was a check tablecloth. It took them two hours to pass the salt” | @Dadsaysjokes

Memorable quotes

A selection of quotes that merit attention:

• “All actors have a role to play in ensuring the safety of AI” – 28 countries sign up to the Bletchley Agreement on managing risks in AI.
• “GDP is expected to be broadly flat in the first half of the forecast period and growth is projected to remain well below historical averages in the medium term” – the Bank of England’s latest Monetary Policy Report.
• “Britain has a bulging middle as the share of both high- and low-paid employees continues to decline” – the Resolution Foundation comments on the latest ONS survey on earnings.
• “Halfon will continue to engage with vice chancellors across the country to ensure the actions they are taking are robust, so that no student feels unsafe or faces any form of discrimination in a UK university” – the education secretary reacts to concerns about tolerance on campuses.
• “I am excited and feel privileged to have the opportunity to lead the organisation in this crucial period” – Ben Rowland prepares to take up the reins as chief executive of the AELP.
• “Temporary buildings that blend reasonably well into their surroundings, due to careful consideration of size and colour schemes, will have less visual impact in the landscape and may be more acceptable to local communities” the government tries to help with guidance on how best to site temporary buildings on RAAC school premises. 
• “Local authorities will be funded for falling rolls as well as growth” – the government makes some changes to schools block funding for 2024/5.
• “I fear that attendance has become the issue of our time” – the children’s commissioner introduces a new report on pupil attendance.
• “While we agree with the idea of developing AI to support teachers and pupils, we have to question the way in which this is being done” – ASCL ask questions about the latest investment in the Oak Academy.
• ““We are still in the dark over whether the government is committed to the programme in the longer term and if it will invest in tutoring properly, and we urge ministers to provide that clarity" – the NAHT responds to the latest reports on the National Tutoring Programme.
• “DD has been given the role of Angel Gabriel, the costume linked £30!!! The other angels costumes are only £15. DDs costume is the most expensive by £10 (the animals and the star are £20), and from a different place” – Mumsnet contributors debate the cost of Nativity play costumes this year.

Other stories

• Word of the year. We’ve had ‘lockdown’, ‘non-fungible tokens’, and last year, ‘permacrisis’, as recent words of the year, selected by Collins English Dictionary. But this year, they’ve gone for ‘AI’.  It beat off the de-words such as de-banking and de-influencing, along with others such as Nepo baby and Bazball, as other highly used words of the year. Its selection hasn’t pleased everybody, with some saying it’s just a set of initials rather than a word. It has also confused those more used to the other usage of AI, such as the celebrity who referred to it in an interview as ‘artificial insemination’. A link to the Collins list can be found here

• On yer bike. Are we losing Cockney and the Queen’s English as forms of speech? According to an article on The Conservation site by a lecturer in Linguistics at Essex University and picked up in The Times this week, it seems that we are. The evidence was perhaps not wildly conclusive – a survey of just under 200 18-33-year-olds in the south of England – but it suggested a decline in traditional forms of speech in favour of three different accents, at least in this part of the country. It identified one form as estuary English, spoken apparently by people like Stacey Dooleu or Jay Blades. Another as standard southern British English. Step forward here Prince Harry or Ellie Goulding. And a third was multicultural London English, saying ‘boht’ for ‘boat’ apparently. Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka or Stormzy both examples here. A link to the article can be found here

If you find my policy updates useful, please consider donating something, however small, to help support its publication. EdCentral is a not-for-profit social enterprise and relies on donations to continue its work.

You can sign up here to receive Education Eye straight to your inbox on publication.

Steve Besley

Disclaimer: Education Eye is intended to help colleagues keep up to date with national developments in the education sector. Information is correct at the time of writing and is offered in good faith. No liability is accepted by Steve Besley or EdCentral for decisions made on the basis of any information provided.