It has been astonishing to witness the downgrading of an entire generation. I am not just talking about A-level results; nor were the kids who were shouting: “Fuck the algorithm!” on the streets. This entirely predictable, man-made fiasco was not an accident.
It was a combination of negligence and malice. Although the algorithm has now been ditched in favour of teacher assessments and the mess left for universities to clear up, it will be chaos. This is not just about the phenomenal uselessness of particular ministers, but a mindset in which children somehow are always someone else’s problem.
This has been apparent from the onset of Covid. Schools were closed. The children of key workers could attend whatever the risk; everyone else had to muddle along. “Work at home and homeschool your children,” was the advice. This job inevitably fell to women as, let’s face it, women just sort of do this stuff. It’s in our genes, apparently, like making packed lunches and remembering people’s birthdays. Women will pick up the pieces. The pieces that are actual people – kids who have been stressed, over-tested and told they must work extra hard, then had their exams whisked away.
A generation that has been constantly scolded for spending too much time on screens and ruining its own social development is told … guess what. Spend more time on screens. That is where you will get your education now, even if you do get into the university of your dreams.
The world became distant and online. During lockdown so many kids withdrew completely, many parents worried if their kids would ever get back out there again. Some worked diligently and some did sod all and thought that come exam time they would smash it. A Boris Johnson strategy, no less.
In the early days of lockdown, I felt that not only had children been downgraded but also teachers. The long, slow undermining of the teaching profession – remember when Dominic Cummings was propelling Michael Gove as the education secretary to take on “the blob”? – continued. Austerity forced teachers to become social workers, handing out breakfasts to kids arriving hungry at school. Covid then reduced them from gifted, hard-working professionals running complex institutions to, basically, childminders. I say that with nothing but love for childminders and nursery workers, by the way; I just note that such work is considered low-skilled and remains low-paid and is mostly done by women. Again, children are just something that women take care of.
It is incomprehensible to me that this government somehow forgot the kids, not even in the David Cameron “left one down the pub way”, but in policy terms. It is almost as if none of them ever actually had responsibility for them.
How did it come to this? Why do we despise young people, removing job, housing and educational opportunities and in the end a planet worth living on? As I said, it’s malice, a breaking of a fundamental social contract in which we do the best we can not just for our own children but for everyone’s.
There was a peculiar sadism in saying to a child from a low-achieving school: “You will be judged by the record of those who went before you.” It was cruel to say to teenagers who have had none of the rites of passage of leaving school, and have been isolated and anxious, that they must suffer for fear of “grade inflation”. Would it have really mattered in the long run if an entire year got three A*s? Post-Covid adjustments could have been made. How was none of this thought about?
Education has been in trouble for a long time. Creativity has been slowly erased from the curriculum in a dumb attempt to make us compete with South Korea. Let’s just say South Korea won.
Education is about more than just grades, but this week it has been about grades – and the trampling of dreams. The PM had an urgent glamping trip. Priorities?
The contempt with which these kids have been treated is something that even your basic Tory can see. What has been created for young people amounts to a hostile environment. As unemployment rises, jobs, particularly in retail and hospitality, have evaporated. Some of these teenagers are wise beyond their years, shouldering their disappointment with huge maturity. This was a call to arms.
The right has always despised the “All must have prizes” aspect of child-centred education and this was the apotheosis of that attitude. All those who can be punished will be.
This was not an algorithmic fluke – it was deliberate. The pandemic has shown us who is expendable: old people in care homes, nurses, migrant workers, working mothers and now children.
Someone will now have to pick up the pieces, sure. Many kids will still miss out on places. It’s a huge mess even after the U-turn; the work has simply been handed on to others, yet again. The grifters who think that their huge parliamentary majority means they can do whatever they like, with no consequences, will one day realise that the future will be not be U-turned. A generation has been taught a lesson that it won’t forget.
