Tim Worstall

Hutton on Schools

Strange, strange, man. Hutton first argues that we’re all absolutely correct, the State education system is crap. Then, that companies should do more training instead of the schools. Perhaps, but then why are we paying £70 odd billion a year in taxes for the crap system?

The trouble is many employers can’t be sure they will be around even
next year, let alone in five or 10 years’ time, because unless they
keep their profits up, they will be taken over by somebody else,
probably one of the new generation of private equity investment
companies.

?? We’re getting perilously close to arguing here that the State education system is crap because we have too many takeovers. Sheesh.

In the detail of the report lies the proposal that if by 2010 not
enough has changed, then the government should introduce a legal
entitlement to workplace training and force companies to become
committed to develop their people –

Don’t you love that: ‘their people’ ?  As if workers actually belong to companies? How condescending.

How about a different solution. Individuals take it upon themselves to improve their own human capital? 

In

7 responses

  1. Bob B Avatar
    Bob B

    Seems they can’t have yet reached the bit in (Nobel laureate) Becker’s seminal text on Human Capital (1964) where he makes the crucial distinction between firm specific skills and generic transferrable skills:
    “Following Becker, the human capital literature often distinguishes between ‘specific’ and ‘general’ human capital. Specific human capital refers to skills or knowledge that is useful only to a single employer (and who will likely be willing to pay for it), whereas general human capital (such as literacy) is useful to all employers.”
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_capital
    Individual employers have no incentive to incur additional costs spending money on equipping employees with general transferrable skills when those very employees can leave with the acquired skills for better pay elsewhere offered by other employers. It makes much more sense to employers to hire employees who already have the required range of essential basic skills or leave the vacancies unfilled – which is very likely why OECD studies show that in most affluent countries the employment rates for graduates are higher than for those with only secondary school education as well as lower unemployment rates among graduates.
    “One third of employers have to give their staff remedial lessons in basic English and maths, a survey suggests. Managers said staff needed to be able to use correct spelling and grammar and should be competent in simple mental arithmetic without a calculator. One in five employers said non-graduate recruits of all ages struggled with literacy or numeracy, the Confederation of British Industry poll found.”
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5263812.stm
    “Some 26 million adults lack maths or English skill levels expected of school-leavers. . . An estimated 5.2 million adults have worse literacy than that expected of 11 year olds, while 14.9 million have numeracy skills below this level.”
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4095153.stm
    “A multi-billion pound adult literacy and numeracy strategy has done little to improve standards, a report says. The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) looks likely to spend nearly £6bn on the Skills For Life programme. But the House of Commons public accounts committee says the first few years of the scheme have provided ‘little evidence of improvements’.”
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4641470.stm

    Reply
  2. Bob B Avatar
    Bob B

    That is precisely why we need to worry about the recent Ofsted report on secondary schools:
    “However, I am concerned about the gap between the best and worst provision. It is unacceptable that one in 12 schools was judged to be inadequate last year. We want all of our schools to make a positive contribution to the life chances of young people.”
    http://www.politics.co.uk/news/education/schools/ofsted/one-in-12-schools-inadequate-$458879.htm
    “Government research obtained by The TES compares the results of pupils in England with teenagers in other countries. The findings weaken ministers’ claims that pupils are getting better at English, maths and science. . . The analysis found evidence that pupils who had achieved average results in key stage 3 tests in English, maths and science and GCSEs performed worse in the 2003 tests than those in 2000.”
    Times Educational Supplement 18 August 2006
    http://www.tes.co.uk/2270700
    As the “knowledged-based economy” comes to contribute an increasingly large share of the GDPs of affluent countries, what will become the downstream fate of the 220,000 or so 16 to 18-year-olds in Britain who are not in education, employment or training unless we can pull up schooling standards rather smartly?
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2372278,00.html
    According to a recent issue of The Economist, Britain is especially well-endowed with low-skilled young people compared with most other major European economies. See the bar chart in:
    http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7843638

    Reply
  3. Trey Tomeny Avatar
    Trey Tomeny

    There exists a unique opportunity at this time to create a new educational system that will be free to the user and globe spanning.
    An entrepreneur with enough capital and vision will capitalize on the fact that the current modes of education distribution are obsolete. A New Academy will be founded that is advertiser supported and delivers a complete education experience, from pre-school to grad school, free to users over the Internet.
    Education will then not be a question of resources, but a question of personal responsibility and will, except for those individuals who lack access to the Internet, are so poor they must work constantly to survive, live in a despotic region that prevents access, or have physiological impediments.
    Since English is the language of commerce and the dominant language of the Internet, if I myself had the capital to embark on this venture, I would make the core curriculum English only, with a set of age appropriate Language to English classes to be mastered first for non-native English speakers.
    Since the New Academy will capture the eyeballs of individuals during their most impressionable years and the reach of the content will be vast, the cost of sponsoring an individual lesson from the best teacher on that particular subject should be tiny in terms of CPM and more importantly in terms of actual results.
    For instance, I had a great physics lecturer at the University of Colorado many years ago. His lectures were both entertaining and informative. There are numerous ways to do product and service placements during one of those lectures. Since the subject matter of introductory Newtonian mechanics will not likely change any more, any particular great lecture on the subject could be viewed millions of times- so the cost of producing it is trivial compared to its advertising value.
    And the production costs will be low because the value of being “the” lecturer on a certain subject will be so high. Educators will scramble to produce the definitve lecture on their subject so they may establish themselves as the expert/celebrity/authority in that area.
    This post could go on forever as to the radical changes that will result when (not if) it comes to pass. The economics of this model are too compelling for it not to occur.

    Reply
  4. David Gillies Avatar
    David Gillies

    If you’re looking for commentary from a Hutton that isn’t jaw-droppingly moronic, you’re probably better of with Harry than Will.

    Reply
  5. Bruce G Charlton Avatar
    Bruce G Charlton

    The answer eventually has to be that almost all schools will be private and autonomous, with some kind of voucher system to subsidize the poor (same for colleges and universities).
    Of course, this has been and will be blocked by the teaching unions and government education administrators – but eventually it will have to happen.
    This may take decades – but the country that adopts voucher will get _such_ an advantage that the model will spread.

    Reply
  6. Bob B Avatar
    Bob B

    As is well known in Britain, Tony Blair wants to encourage the creation of “Academies” in England – Scotland and Wales run their own systems of schooling. Academies are independently managed secondary schools set up with private initiative and some private funding mostly in areas with failing schools and histories of poor education standards. The running costs of the Academies are subsequently paid for by the government.
    Now – and this is the important rub – much of the extensive and vociferous local opposition to starting Academies is on the grounds that such schools are “undemocratic” because their management is vested in independent boards of governors and beyond the control of the elected local education authorities – which it is. But let’s run through that again – Academies are mainly set up in localities where local democratic control of schools has yielded failing standards of secondary education. That’s it. Many folks just don’t want indpendent schools even if that means better standards in secondary. Don’t ask me why – I can only speculate about the political motivation.
    An alternative model:
    “In the Netherlands a scheme ensuring freedom of parental choice in education was enshrined in the Constitution of 1917. Altogether about 70 per cent of children attend independent schools, of which the majority are church schools. It is relatively easy to set up new schools – only 50 parents are needed in towns of fewer than 25,000 people but 125 in towns of over 100,000. Hence 65 per cent of schools in the Netherlands are private.
    “All government and independent taxpayer-funded schools are guaranteed the same financial support. The governing bodies of independent schools receive a sum equivalent to the per capita cost of state schooling for each student (average £3,560). . . ”
    http://www.reform.co.uk/website/reformaroundtheworld/netherlands.aspx
    For comparison note that:
    “Last year, a report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) revealed that Britain came seventh from bottom in a league table of staying-on rates [in education] for 19 countries. Only Mexico and Turkey had significantly lower rates of participation for this age group. Italy, New Zealand, Portugal and Slovakia have marginally lower rates.”
    http://education.guardian.co.uk/gcses/story/0,16086,1555547,00.html
    Some want it that way, believe me.

    Reply
  7. Bob B Avatar
    Bob B

    For a review of the international experience of vouchers in schooling, try:
    http://www.civitas.org.uk/pdf/schoolChoiceDec05.pdf

    Reply

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