Can Education Survive the Market Place?
Saturday, May 14th, 2005
10.30 - 4.00
Vaughan College
St. Nicholas Circle
Leicester
This Conference is being hosted by Leicester Association of University Teachers. We believe that market driven priorities for education combined with inappropriate application of competitive principles (both to individuals and to institutions) have reached a point where educational integrity is seriously undermined.
This is true from the pre-school level right through the system to the universities. In the case of the former, children are examined to a degree that is considered by many professionals in the field to be harmful to their educational development. In the latter, the struggle for survival forced on academic departments means that many decisions are taken that result in the abandonment of long-term perspectives, a sacrificing of objectivity and balance, and the imposition of stress levels on individuals that robs them of initiative and the capacity for innovation.
Pre-school and university are two ends of the system, and many examples could be taken from levels of education between these age extremes. All would show that, whilst tax-payers have every right to ensure that their money is well spent, insensitive use of competitive pressure has now become counter-productive in this respect. In the future we are likely to find that we have destroyed the seed-corn from which real advancement grows.
Whilst the 1988 Education Act may have not have been the first step in these detrimental practices, it was probably from that time that educational decision-makers separated themselves from practitioners in the field. That Act was rushed through with virtually no meaningful consultation with teachers, academics, researchers in education or even the local authorities who have a great length of experience in handling education matters. Little has changed. In fact the situation has worsened as a new generation of bureaucrats, broadly sympathetic to insensitive applications of market philosophy, have found their way into the educational institutions.
We believe that educational practitioners have a responsibility to take back the educational process and to put forward alternative priorities for education. It is with this in mind that we invite you to this Conference.
Speakers include:
Simon Tormey (AUT, Nottingham)
Sue Blackwell (AUT, Birmingham)
Pete Flack (NUT and Leicester Social Forum)
£20 for those supported by their institutions or unions, £10 standard fee for individuals, and £6 for those with concessions (students/unemployed/retired). Childcare facilities will be provided where requested, buffet lunch and refreshments included.
For further details, please contact:
Nick James, President, Leicester AUT
0116 252 2037 or [log in to unmask]
Or
Paul Henderson, Leicester AUT Committee
0116 270 7730 or [log in to unmask]
University of Leicester
AUT <http://www.le.ac.uk/unions/aut/index.html>
I would like to attend the conference `Can education survive the market place?` on 14th May, and enclose cheque/P.O. for £6/£10/£20 (delete as applicable)
Name.........................................................
...................................................................
Address....................................................
...................................................................
...................................................................
Daytime phone no.................................
E-mail address........................................
Union/organisation.................................
...................................................................
If you require childcare, please indicate number and age of children and any special requirements or instructions (please let us know by 29th April, so that we can make the necessary arrangements)
..................................................................
..................................................................
..................................................................
...................................................................
Please return to:
AUT Office, Room 207, Attenborough Tower, University of Leicester, LE1 7RH
This email is intended solely for the addressee. It may contain private and confidential information. If you are not the intended addressee, please take no action based on it nor show a copy to anyone. In this case, please reply to this email to highlight the error. Opinions and information in this email that do not relate to the official business of Nottingham Trent University shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by the University.
Nottingham Trent University has taken steps to ensure that this email and any attachments are virus-free, but we do advise that the recipient should check that the email and its attachments are actually virus free. This is in keeping with good computing practice.
This disclaimer was brought to you by a trial version of mxClaim from www.mxclaim.com
|