the baccalaureate. Sadly, the Tomlinson report did not go as faras recommending a move in this direction, as had been expected.

Finally, when all these reforms of the curriculum are in place,there will still remain one overriding aspect about which toolittle has been said. Learning and teaching are intimate humanactivities, which depend for their success on the personalities of those engaged. The teacher as role model is the key to thesuccessful development of every individual. It is imperative thatwe ensure that only the best and brightest of teachers arepresented to the young. Teaching needs to be the mostrewarding and the most rewarded of the professions.

Given these recommendations, there remain practicalconsiderations of how to implement them. Put another way,how can we challenge centuries-old traditions and proceduresand persuade people of the need andadvantage of radical change? In as much asthe Mode 1/Mode 2 debate allows a newapproach to knowledge and skills, equallyfresh thought is required about theirorganisation. This is the realm of politics,where all reforms are born.

By common consent the quality lookedfor across the spectrum of education iscapability – a rounded, comprehensive,attainable goal for most young people andone most likely to benefit them, theircountry and its economy. It does not implyacademic brilliance or exceptionaldexterity, but rather a willingness andability to solve problems. A reminder ofour unwillingness to recognise ability as capability is to observeagain that this has never been the target of formal education,being always overshadowed by the traditional quest foracademic knowledge, regardless of its value and values.

The blueprint of academic procedures is the syllabus, theagreed range of subjects and topics to be learnt and examined.It is argued here that this is often a hangover from Victoriantimes. There may be subject areas in which narrowness is thenecessary price of specialisation but for the majority ofstudents, premature specialisation is a serious handicap. Theclosing down of options is unnecessary and unwise. Whatwould replace subject specialisation? Simply a wider range of subject options, including the 20 or 30 topics of currentinterest, all ready-made and formulated on the internet.

However, it is one thing to soft-pedal the Mode 1 knowledgebase of facts and figures, but another to replace it or infuse it with other characteristics of Mode 2. Mode 2 is the home ofimplicit knowledge, of experiential knowledge, of skills and of competences. It is therefore close to capability, to know-how,

to technology, to design and the many other generic skills, theknowledge content of which is incidental.

But how can Mode 2 be taught and examined as part of thegrading of the young? The answer is again simple. It cannot. Itdoes not belong to the academic world of the graded intellectbut to the useful world of intelligence – the ability to do and tobe. It cannot be overemphasised that the purpose of educationis not to grade the young by their ability to leap over hurdles ofintellectual attainment but rather by their ability to mount, intheir own way and in their own time, a sequence of gently risingsteps, each the result of a succession of the virtuous cycles oflearning described in my first essay.

Mode 2 can be acquired only by practice, by training, byexperience under the eye of someone who has already mastered

the arts, crafts and science of whatever skillis involved. Its home is not the classroomwith its implied authority but rather theseminar room, the laboratory, and othersocial spaces where the spoken word ismore important than the written word andwhere argument is invited. The Socraticworld of rhetoric has therefore to make acomeback if the rational articulation ofcapability is to be fostered and cherished.

The transition from Mode 1 to Mode 2is summarised in the New LearningParadigm, in which small group tutorials,laboratory exercises, case studies, and skillsand competence training form the basis oflearning. The harvesting and management

of explicit knowledge is then best left to the personal computer,the internet and the web. Students respond to this method oflearning. It is user-friendly, uncritical and patient. We shouldbanish the bogeyman of the student glued to a monitor screen.The idea is to use the internet efficiently, that is, as little aspossible. It is not too much of an exaggeration to say that thenew generation is being asked to acquire as little explicitknowledge as possible, commensurate with developing thewidest range of skills implicit in capability.

The learning process therefore begins not with theacquisition of knowledge but with its application. Problem-based learning is here to stay. The case study is its vehicle. Itbegins with the phrase “Once upon a time”. If the proper studyof man is man then it is only through narrative literature thatwe come close to the values and the morals of humankind.

This engagement with human values reaches the zenith of itsintellectual fruitfulness in the mediation of the New LearningParadigm by teachers prepared to share their values with theirstudents. It is a shoulder-to-shoulder relationship rather than

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There are fewer subjects more emotive than education. Rightlyso, as the quality of education will shape the future lives of ourchildren, and indeed, the health of our society as a whole. In myfirst essay for the rsa Journal, I set out the case for theresurgence of generic and vocational skills to sit on an equallevel with the more traditional academic subjects (“In from thecold – the rise of vocational education”, rsa Journal, November2004, p22). I argued that we will need the know-how skills asmuch, if not more, than those of the know-what. We can seefrom the controversy sparked by the sound recommendationsin the government’s report “14-19 Curriculum andQualifications Reform” produced last October by MikeTomlinson’s Working Group on 14-19 Reform, arguing for anew diploma giving greater weighting to the vocational topics,that it is not easy to implement these proposals.

My view, which is set out below, is that the best and fairestway to promote a good education, apart from a greater focus onskills-based learning, is to free the system from central control.More specifically, I argue for the introduction of a bursary orvoucher system to ensure that all young people have equalaccess to the schools of their choice, from nursery to secondaryschool; and I suggest that mandatory grants for undergraduatesshould be reintroduced to make the system more equitable.

My first essay also sought to make a virtue out of flexibilityacross the spectrum of knowledge, from academic to vocationalstudies, with greater emphasis on the latter. I discussed theNew Learning Paradigm, propounded by thinkers such as Sir Alistair MacFarlane, which divides knowledge into twocategories: Mode 1 (factual, intellectual knowledge, based on a world of hypotheses and theories) and Mode 2 (thinkingconcerned with the application of academic knowledge touseful purposes). I also argued that the didactic procedures ofMode 1 knowledge should give way to the more conversationalstyles of Mode 2 thinking, so that professors and teachers

would then be valued less for what they know and more forwhat they are, as individuals, role models and friends.

The essay argued for the simultaneous education andtraining of young people to become more capable citizens. Bysingling out implicit, personal knowledge as the proper goal ofeducation, values and experience were pushed up the ladder ofeducational achievement at the expense of explicit knowledgeof facts and figures. The culmination of this reordering ofpriorities leads to a new perspective of knowledge between thetwo extremes of Mode 1 and Mode 2.

The next question is how to make sure the right changeshappen in education policy. As I mentioned in my first essay, an rsa report (Education for Capability) written almost twodecades ago, already argued cogently for the type of educationalreforms set out above. Sadly, in the last 20 years the report has,like so many others, gathered dust while its call for change hasgone unanswered. The obstacle to implementing itsrecommendations was not a lack of belief or will but theestablishment’s stubborn loyalty to the time-honoured processof grading people in terms of what they know.

Looking at today’s position there are key questions that needto be asked: why are secondary schools locked into a rigidnational curriculum? Why do British universities look moreand more alike? One answer to these questions might be thatrecent governments have insisted that there be accountabilityin education and have, therefore, created systems of testing and so forth which create conformity and uniformity. This is supposed to prove that the system is fair to children from all social backgrounds. But uniformity is a denial of the greatvariety of pupils and teachers. Diversity is not just desirable; it is the only means of continual evolution.

It is then the role of teachers to guide their students into a future better assured by as many options as possible. Thatattitude is most noticeable in the alternative qualifications of

20 RSA JOURNAL FEBRUARY 2005

Fighting the status quo

MANIFESTO CHALLENGE | DEVELOPING A CAPABLE POPULATION

In part two of his essay, Professor Sir Graham Hills argues that we

must free education from centuries of tradition and teach our children capability

from nursery through to college and university

words by P r o f e s s o r S i r G r a h a m Hi l l s

The best and fairest way to promote a good education,apart from a greater focus on skills-based

learning, is to free it from central control

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The way to do this is to bridge the gap between academiaand business, between theory and reality – between Mode 1and Mode 2. From one side, that of traditional education, it is done by incorporating into the syllabuses at all levels thelanguages, materials and attitudes of business itself. But it alsorequires a continual exchange of mindsets so that industry is as comfortable with academia as academia is with industry.

The best way to connect the world of industry to academia is by peopling it with students. This is the time-honoured andhighly successful tradition of the industrial apprentice, of thehospital intern, of the jobbing accountant, of the articled clerkand now of the call centre and software apprentice. Once on astrictly business basis, this kind of work experience has beenallowed to degenerate into a grace-and-favour endeavour.

The new business basis of the new apprenticeship would bethe salary paid to the apprentice or, if the training wereseparate and at a cost, it would be from the national vouchercashed by companies in exchange for that training. The ideathat learning can only take place in a school or university isabsurd. Learning and training are solely dependent on theskilled performance of the master wherever he or she is to befound, in the design studio, in the machine shop or at thepersonal computer. Once we attach real value to real activities,then a variety of markets and market forces will do the rest. ■

according to his means, to each according to her needs”. Thevehicle for that to happen is the bursary to meet the basic costsof a higher (and further) education course leading to a firstdegree. This resurrection of the earlier, postwar mandatorygrant is the key to equitable provision.

The basic cost of a first degree in Britain is not easily definedor calculated. Subjects vary in cost from, say, mathematics tomedicine and it would be invidious to bias the choice of subjectby its relative cost. The American solution to this problem is tomake first degree programmes more general in content,equivalent in value, less specialist by nature and not requiringexpensive laboratories and other such facilities. The concept ofthe general first degree is not new. It was the normal precursorto professional training in Scotland until the start of the 20thcentury. It presupposes that the professional studies of medicine,law, accountancy and the like are best studied at postgraduatelevel where the costs are high but the numbers smaller, hence the opportunity for earning while learning that much greater.Under these circumstances the cost of the first degree is nomore than that of any current arts-based subject. A cockshyguess at that cost would be £10,000 a year for three years.

There are many reasons for advocating these changes, whichwould bring Britain into line not just with the us but also withthe rest of Europe. The advantages would be to economise onthe cost of all first degree programmes and to remove thefinancial obstacles from the reforms presented here.

The reforms themselves have many advantages. First off,they increase the range of options, the extent of choice, andmake those options the responsibility of the teachers and thetaught. They open the door to the evolution of subjects,courses, degrees and a better balance between knowledge andskills at all levels of education, and are more economic in thatthe greatest outlay is on the cost-effective, general, first degree.Requiring no upfront fees, except those for frills, the degreeforms the only sensible basis of mass higher education. Itsflexibility blurs the interface between higher and furthereducation, which can then be allowed to wither, to the greatadvantage of widespread capability. It removes the pressure onschools to specialise too soon by moving specialist, professionalcourses into the realm of postgraduate studies, and in so doingraises the standards of scholarship and research where theymatter. On the side of the status quo might be that any reformis disruptive of a system already in being, and might open up even greater government intervention. The most demandingyet rewarding objective for the rsa is to free education from top-down direction and open it to bottom-up evolution. Giventhe choice, students would opt for the subjects, disciplines andskills that best meet their lifelong ambitions. The benefits of a capable society would then be self-evident.

There remains the perpetual question of the nature of thiscapability. To be inclusive the answer will point to a range ofcapabilities, from the most esoteric subject matter to the down-to-earth requirements of manufacturing and commerce.

Now to the main problem: secondary education. Whereasadmission to a nursery or primary school is mainly on the basisof need and locality, the same is not true of secondary schools,at least in England. Scotland has shown that secondaryeducation does not require a selective examination. Similarly,streaming and further selection are not common elsewhere inEurope, but the English system, devoted to such principles forso long, will need time to evolve into something more generous.

Here, then, the bursary or the voucher takes on newsignificance. It is social justice that since all are required to paynational taxes all should be entitled to receive national benefits.Because it would be perverse if independent education wasseen as deliberately subsidising state education, independentschools should not be excluded from the bursary scheme.

All pupils attending public or private secondary schoolswould be entitled to a voucher for each of the age cohorts from12 to 18. Those envious critics who would see this as a new andextended form of the assisted-places scheme should be reminded

that levelling up is always a cheaper optionthan levelling down. Distasteful as privilegesometimes is, vouchers for all are the bestleveller of educational provision.

The need for a level playing field is mostevident in tertiary education – higher andfurther education – the financing of whichhas agonised successive governments. Onlya fraction of school-leavers were admittedto British universities until recently. Mostpupils dismissed the idea of their aspiringto a university place. The inquiry chairedby Lord Robbins in 1962, which producedthe “Report of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education”,concluded that many more young people

could benefit from further or higher education and should beoffered a place. This required the establishment of 10 or moreuniversities, to the outcry of those who believed that there wasno reservoir of talent to justify this. Forty years on the target is now 50% of school-leavers and the applicants keep coming.

To the question “How is this new open-doors policy to bepaid for?” the answer again is simple – that those who benefitshould contribute. But how is it to be done? The mere mentionof fees, including top-up fees, raised hackles at all points of thepolitical compass, from students and universities alike. Botchedand different outcomes for England, Scotland and Walesstrongly suggested that there was to be no solution to thisproblem on traditional lines. Only the bursary or thescholarship, considered and then rejected during the Thatcherera, held out some hope of equity. Free higher education for those lucky enough to be admitted therefore remained a manifesto pledge of successive Labour governments.

There is now a consensus that those that benefit should paysomething, perhaps on the Marxist principle of “from each

the eyeball-to-eyeball stance and greatly to be desired. It is thetransition from the closed mind to the open heart. If, then, webelieve that we have discovered the best of syllabuses and theoptimal combination of knowledge and skills, we have to repeatthe question of how this break with tradition is to be made. We know from experience it cannot easily be done.

Although the protagonists of these reforms are sympatheticto the needs of students and students learn best from thosewhom they admire most, it remains that antagonists may alsobe well intentioned even if they are conservative, risk-averseand likely to have a low opinion of every generation of studentsexcept their own. These will only be persuaded by example thatthere really are better possibilities than the status quo.

There will be other thoughtful people who applaud thepresent arrangements that, after all, produced them. Theybelieve that John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-90), authorof a famous lecture series entitled “The idea of a university”,was right – that intellect is the supreme human achievement.They may fear that all will be lost inanother comprehensive-school fiasco andthat the privileges they or their offspring atpresent enjoy would be absent in a moreopen system of knowledge and learning.The independent schools will not easilyyield the splendid traditions of learningand grooming they have nurtured for a century or more.

The overcoming of these obstaclestherefore requires that the majority of those involved are sure of a win-winoutcome. The instrument of the all-embracing, all-benefiting reform is, ofcourse, the bursary, the scholarship or thevoucher, to be spent in any and every kindof school and university. It is, in effect, a cheque underwrittenby government to cover the basic cost of the educationalprovision for every pupil and every student at every level of formal education. The voucher could be a national financial entitlement to nursery education for allunder-fives, spent at public or private institutions, an incentivefor both to perform at their best.

For primary schools the same principle would apply but it might be thought that minimum and maximum class sizesshould be clearly specified. There might nevertheless bearguments for village schools or special schools of smaller size.Good sense would prevail. The outcome would be close to that at present, the difference being in the governance of theschools, which would be free to recruit and reward their ownstaff. Regulatory bodies would have the first but not the lastword. The value of the primary school voucher would beuniform and not lightly varied. It would enable primaryschools, singly or otherwise, to budget ahead and, in all matters,to manage themselves.

FEBRUARY 2005 RSA JOURNAL 2322 RSA JOURNAL FEBRUARY 2005

WHERE TO FIND OUT MORE

REPORT | LECTURE | WEBSITE | DEBATE

GO On 3 February, Frank Pignatelli, Learn Direct Scotland, and

Christopher Clouder, Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship, discuss

the building of a capable and skilled Scottish population in an

RSA Scotland lecture. Contact events@nls.uk for details

HAVE YOUR SAY Why not contribute to the debate on this

important topic on the RSA’s web forum? To start a new online

debate or join an existing one visit www.theRSA.org/forum

RSA PROJECT The RSA recently initiated a project to investigate

whether our education system effectively delivers the skills that

people need to be successful in the modern world. Visions of

a Capable Society is being developed in collaboration with

Professor Sir Graham Hills. For further information, or to

contribute suggestions or comments, visit the RSA website at

www.theRSA.org/projects/visions_of_capable_society.asp

FEEDBACK We have already received a number of letters in

response to Professor Sir Graham Hills’ first essay on education.

A selection of Fellows’ views of both articles will be published in

the next issue. If you would like to air your views on the subject

email your letters to editor@rsa.org.uk

The best way to connect the world of industry toacademia is by peopling it with students, the

time-honoured tradition of the industrial apprentice

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