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The Guardian
24-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Another way we are failing an entire generation: we must teach young people to speak
The greatest failing of Britain's schools is to teach children to read, write and count, but not to speak. They teach what technology can increasingly do for them, but not what it cannot. A regular complaint of today's employers is that applicants for jobs lack social skills or work ethic. Pupils are rarely taught how to present themselves, handle arguments or form human relationships. The most basic requirements for entering adulthood are ignored. The one task to which teaching is almost exclusively dedicated – examination – is an activity conducted in total silence. No grown-up job involves answering exam questions. Education only in the 'three Rs' is akin to where medicine was in the days of bleeding and leeches. The teaching of oracy, or the use of speech, was launched about 10 years ago by progressive educationists in an attempt to make schooling more relevant. A few charities have promoted it, such as Voice 21 and Impetus, and a few schools promised to teach it. Then, in 2024, came an independent commission on oracy, chaired by Geoff Barton of the Association of School and College Leaders. It reported that the revolution was overdue. Although the national curriculum for England includes the teaching of spoken language as part of English programmes, it is rarely emphasised or made prominent. Speaking ability, group working and class debating should have the same status as reading, literacy and numeracy. Oracy should be 'the fourth R'. Just before the commission, the then prime minister, Rishi Sunak, was still burbling about everyone doing maths until they were 18, as if calculators did not exist. But Keir Starmer grabbed the moment. He declared oracy was 'not just a skill for learning, it's also a skill for life … for working out who you are, for overcoming shyness or disaffection, anxiety or doubt … for opening up to our friends and family.' The Labour leader promised that teaching oracy would be a priority of a Labour government. He had got the point. Or apparently not. Starmer's remark was one of his familiar off-the-cuff moments. He never repeated the pledge. When the government's interim curriculum and assessment review was published in March, the word oracy was absent. Instead there was rather a traditional emphasis on imparted knowledge, what Dickens satirised in Hard Times as filling 'little pitchers' to the brim. On speaking, it was silent. This week, Starmer was called to account. He received an open letter from oracy campaigners demanding he stick to his pledge. It was signed by former education secretaries Charles Clarke and Estelle Morris, writer Michael Rosen, political pundit Alastair Campbell and 56 other champions of the skill of speaking. The writers pleaded with Starmer: 'In a world shaped by rapid advances in artificial intelligence, deepening social divides and persistent inequality, the skills of speaking, listening and communicating have never been more urgently needed.' Rosen, a professor of children's literature, added that 'the backbone of language is our talk. It's the everyday way we make and change relationships, share the events of our lives, hear about other people's lives.' Young members of my family recently returned from school in California, where the essence of the new education is focused on performing and learning in groups. The teacher's role is not to lecture but to guide discussion. This is already being tested in British universities, such as Reading and Bath. I imagine it is anathema to Ofsted as it cannot be measured. When I suggested it, a teacher replied: 'Oh, you just want all schools to be like The Apprentice.' The essence of oracy is helping pupils articulate their thoughts to others, to listen and reply with courtesy and intelligence. Pupils at Winchester College used to start each day with a topical class discussion. All schools should do that. The nearest most children might get to hearing a public debate is witnessing idiot shrieking at prime minister's questions. When I watch the pupils leaving my local comprehensive, they don't converse. They look at their phones or they shout. As Jonathan Haidt has written, this is seriously bad news. The resistance of Britain's school system to change is near fanatical. It says in effect that if the three Rs were good enough for Queen Victoria, they must be good enough for children now. The system still loves maths – which is not needed by 95% of job-seekers – because it is easy to measure and for governments to boast about. Even literature is reduced to multiple-choice questions. Every classroom minute must become a statistic and a league table. Everything we now hear about the teenage young is causing alarm. Mental illness is soaring. So are special educational needs, absenteeism and, worst of all, un-employability. The world of work is irrelevant. School teaching appears trapped in a professional archaism that forbids reform. Class instruction, academic bias, length of terms and exam obsession are immutable. Parents and even pupils responded to the recent curriculum review by pleading for subjects such as 'financial education, careers knowledge, and politics and governance'. The pleas were ignored. There will be no GCSEs in the world outside the school gates. As for Starmer, he is more interested in getting 16-year-olds to vote for him than in giving them a modern education. If he was a true radical, he would honour his pledge and get them talking. Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist
Daily Mail
05-06-2025
- Lifestyle
- Daily Mail
The worrying reason schools are removing analogue clocks - as teachers issue warning
Schools are removing analogue clocks in exam halls because teenagers can no longer tell the time. In some schools throughout the UK, digital clocks have been installed after GCSE and A-level students complained that they couldn't read the correct time, adding to the stress of examinations. Children have to learn to tell the time using an analogue clock by the age of seven – but it appears many quickly forget the skill. Education leaders, teachers and unions said that digital clocks on smartphones and other electronic devices are the main driver behind youngsters losing the skill. Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, previously said: 'We're aware of some schools replacing analogue clocks with digital clocks in exam rooms. 'Young people taking exams have been brought up in a digital age and many just don't necessarily see analogue clocks and watches as much as older generations did when they were growing up. It's literally a case of changing times.' Students need to be as relaxed as possible in an exam and it adds to their stress if they cannot tell the time, Malcolm Trobe, deputy general secretary at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), a head teacher's union, said. He told the Telegraph previously: 'The current generation aren't as good at reading the traditional clock face as older generation. 'They are used to seeing a digital representation of time on their phone, on their computer. 'Nearly everything they've got is digital so youngsters are just exposed to time being given digitally everywhere.' However, telling the time is still part of the national curriculum in British schools for key stage one (years one and two). Pupils should be able to tell the time to the hour and half past, and draw the hands on a clock face to show these times, according to the government website. They should be able to use the 'language of time' throughout the day. Steve Chalke, founder of Oasis Charitable Trust, which runs about 50 schools, told The Times: 'We use a mix of digital and traditional clocks to overcome this potential problem.' A recent viral post on the Instagram account @endbackpain read: 'Schools are removing analogue clocks because teenagers can no longer read them.' The post prompted much debate, and people were outraged that such a crucial life skill is no longer a given in the younger generation. One outraged commenter wrote: 'That's why you teach them!' 'What the hell are schools for,' a second agreed. A furious third said: 'Failed as teachers.. well done!' and another added: 'Stop the Earth, I want to get off…' Others were quick to share their own experiences, as one person shared: 'I called the dentist office the other day and apologised to them that I would be late. 'My appt was 9:30 so I told her I'd be there at quarter of 10, so the young receptionist said you'll be here at 9:75? I almost died.' 'Back in my day, we used to learn how they work, now you're telling me you can't spend 5 minutes teaching them about clocks?' another wrote. Meanwhile, back in 2019 a survey revealed that half of young adults struggle to tell the time on a clockface with hands. The YouGov survey, of more than 2000 people, raises the possibility that the smartphone generation could eventually lose the ability to read analogue clock faces. The news will come as a huge blow to traditional watchmakers as their market continues to plummet each year. Experts say that the rise of smartphones and smartwatches has left increasing amounts of young people unable to read traditional watches. The research was commissioned by the Marloe Watch Company, a British wristwatch designer. The firm said digital devices had become the 'primary' way for young people to tell the time. Co-founder Oliver Goffe said: 'Generation Zers are our future prime ministers, teachers and doctors. The fact they might not be able to tell the time if they can't find a phone charger could be an issue.'
