As the world tilts east, towards nimbler Asian economies, Britain has never been in greater need of a skilled, educated and flexible workforce that can help us to return to a period of growth.
Yet we are increasingly a two-track nation. We have a competitive advantage as the home of English, yet increasingly fail to master the language of maths. Our top universities have a good record of scientific discovery, yet we filed fewer patents in 2009 than Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Germany and the United States. We increasingly demand degrees for all sorts of jobs that used not to need one, but we also have 900,000 people between the ages of 16 and 24 who are not in education, employment or training. That is an inhuman waste of talent. It is also unaffordable.
And unfair. The educational divide between rich and poor is increasingly stark. In 2008 40 per cent of those pupils eligible for free school meals (the poorest) did not get a single C grade at GCSE. Independent schools, which educate only 7 per cent of schoolchildren, produce more pupils who get three As at A level than all comprehensive schools put together. In 2009 only 45 pupils eligible for free school meals got into Oxford or Cambridge.
The challenges will only increase with the savage cuts expected in the October spending round. The Chancellor has hinted that the schools budget will be partially protected. The university budget will not.
Like that of 1997, this Government has made education its priority. Michael Gove’s policies include restoring powers to teachers over discipline, implementing a “pupil premium” for the most disadvantaged children and allowing parents and other providers to set up new schools on the Swedish model. He wants to create more apprenticeships, give universities more power over A levels and raise the bar for teaching qualifications.
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The debate will continue but, how ever we are going to earn our living in the future, we need a workforce ready to meet those challenges.