Young people to air their views as EDUCATE Ventures hosts second webinar on education reform

Education assessment and school attendance from the perspectives of young people will be among the topics for discussion in the second EDUCATE Ventures’ webinar on education reform, being held on Tuesday, March 23.

The panellists will include a host of young people from a variety of educational backgrounds and experiences, with Lord Jim Knight, the former Schools Minister now chief education adviser at TES Global, in the chair. Other participants include Fiona Millar, the education journalist and author; Eddie Rose, of the Unicef Youth Advisory Board; Teo Smith, of Google Tutorials; Ellie Costello from Team Square Peg; and representatives from Football Beyond Borders.

The session, Shock to the System: Learning from Young People, will explore a number of issues affecting students’ experiences of the education system, including the concept of “learning loss” and its definition; the role of examinations and assessment in dictating curriculum content and the future of GCSEs.

The panellists will also examine whether young people found what was taught in schools useful and interesting — and how that compared with what they learned during the Covid-19 school shutdown.

The webinar series has been organised following a call from a group of influential educationalists and policymakers, including EDUCATE’s director, Professor Rose Luckin, for a royal commission to examine the future of the education system in the post-Covid, post-Brexit era.

Among the issues for consideration by campaigners was whether GCSEs remained fit for purpose now that young people are required to stay on in education or training beyond the age of 16, and if they prepare school-leavers for the world of work. The group suggested that a system of assessment similar to the International Baccalaureate qualification might be more appropriate.

The Covid-19 pandemic and resulting school closures also shone a light on teaching and learning and the need for the use of technology to allow students to access education. EDUCATE Ventures’ study, Shock to the System: Lessons from Covid 19, published in February, looked at the experiences of schools and teachers, families and the EdTech community over a nine-month period following the first lockdown last year.

Register for the webinar here.