The Right to Learn (PDF)

A sense of crisis in the UK education system has prompted unprecedented levels of government intervention to raise standards of 'educational attainment'. But what is education for? Is it to produce a population equipped only with workplace skills so that they can contribute to economic efficiency and the production of wealth? Or is to produce future generations with the intellectual resources for questioning values implicit in the organisation of wealth production? And how can we claim to be equipping the population with skills when the rapid social, technological and economic changes mean that skills required are inherently unpredictable. Is it therefore more desirable to cultivate individual critical and creative abilities through a broad, liberal curriculum?
This book raises these and other questions about the future of the learning society. It claims that recent UN Conventions about the rights of children and parents are not being addressed by the UK Government's concentration on a highly centralised education system. Drawing on case study material from recent projects in the US, Denmark and the Netherlands, the author raises questions about educational provision and access. He discusses why there is a need to educate both society and the individual. He studies the Human Rights issue, the economy and the cost effectiveness of education, and epistemological perspectives. Finally he discusses some alternative solutions to the problems he sees occurring in the UK, he draws on some examples from overseas and suggests possible ways forward.