Higher education and the ‘broken society’
In the wake of riots and looting, the Prime Minister has argued that they are evidence of a broken society and moral decline (The Guardian, 16 August 2011: UK Riots: PM’s big speech). He argues that they represent a failure on the part of families and education. For many other commentators, the failure is a consequence of a society based on greed and consumerism, of widening inequalities and restricted opportunities.
At the very moment he argues for the need to reverse a ‘slow-motion moral decline’, David Cameron’s government is responsible for pushing forward rapid changes to higher education that will put the market at the heart of the system and encourage students to think of themselves as consumers, to invest in their own human capital and, in the future, reap high financial rewards.
Previous reports on higher education, such as the Robbins Report (1963) and the Dearing Report (1997), argued that university education is important for the economy and to help young people meet their aspirations for jobs. However, Robbins also endorsed the importance of higher education in providing a common culture and standards of citizenship. The Dearing Report further argued that a fundamental role of universities was to “sustain a culture which demands disciplined thinking, encourages curiosity, challenges existing ideas and generates new ones; [and to] be part of the conscience of a democratic society, founded on respect for the rights of the individual and the responsibilities of the individual to society as a whole” (paragraph 1.4). Yet, the Government’s White Paper on Higher Education proposes to dismantle public higher education in England. It makes no mention of such values, when it advocates introducing competition and ‘for-profit’ providers discharged from all such responsibilities.
The Prime Minister puts the ‘broken society’ back on the agenda, but proposes dramatic changes to universities that are not broken. These changes are designed to introduce the market into higher education, but will do so only by evacuating the very values that the Prime Minister argues are necessary to mend society. We are used to a Minister of State for Universities and Science with two brains, we must now get used to a Prime Minister with two faces.
Isn’t cleaning moats and building duck houses at a time of global economic and ecological recession also a sign of ‘a broken society and moral decline’?
While the leadership are still in denial, there will undoubtedly be people angered by the injustices of their situation.
United Nations Agenda 21 was formed by the evidence assimilated by scientists, researchers and non-profit organisations, and adopted by governments across the world.
Unfortunately, there has been little evidence of any freedom for the people since 1992 when the document was first released – and little signs of the ethics it should have been inspired.
Earth’s changing climate – environmental and economical – is not disputed by the people who live at grassroots level, most of whom I know have been petitioning the government for decades for change.
But even now – in the year 2011 – the government still tried to do a U-Turn on Carbon credits.
Living in an open, fair and just society is completely possible and plausible – exemplars of sustainable design have set precident, been built and are now hailed as ‘Beacons’ for others to follow across the UK – most especially in Scotland, Wales and Wessex.
While Level 3 recruitment is blocked by government, we are unable to teach the subsidiary diploma in environmental sustainability – which would teach people how to build sustainable communities, and show graphically why that change has to be made.
There are also restrictions in the supply of renewable technologies – which would allow the public of the United Kingdom the opportunity of living without electricity, water, heating and fuel bills.
While people have the power of ‘free speach’, unfortunately there is still nothing in place, for anyone anywhere to take any notice of the words.
As an eight year old in the 1960s writing poetry about pollution and understanding the scientific evidence, I was amazed at the media and political view that all who raised their voice peacefully to ask for environmental and humanitarian changes – were ‘hippies’.
Blanket statements and namecalling, demean the cause – which was based on factual evidence as prepared by Universities, and explained by students.
The commercial world will be left idle by the non-profit community forming today.
An Open-Source community, with an humanitarian and environmental concience – which understands the need to rebalance the global economy and ecology.
This cannot start at government level, as this is based purely on counting stock and people, and does not understand that bovines cannot be fed to bovines – even if it does stop the financial ‘waste’ of an end product.
Nor does it support a system which continues to borrow and increase a countries debt mountain, which is completely unsustainable.
This is now the time for change – and anger at ‘ground level’ is now spilling out from peaceful protests, to angry riots – allowing some to loot and rob.
Open Source, Open Democracy and Open Education are the only ways forward now – well, along with open transparency, ethical trading, and supporting ‘the community’.
There is only one – the human community, just as there IS only one Earth.
(How can we use 1.4 world’s resources [United Nations, Spring 2011], when we only have one world?)
When global debt exceeds GDP, the seven richest people in the world have a combined GDP in excess of 42 of the worlds poorest and most indebted countries, and 22,000 little children die every single day, I still dispair when I read Prime Ministers statements as shown above.
And I wonder if there WILL ever be an end to ignorance – which is not born of a lack of education, but more of a lack of conscience.
For further discussion of the wider educational implication of the riots for schools, FE and HE – see: http://radicaled.wordpress.com/2011/08/14/most-young-people-did-not-riot-but-can-the-%e2%80%98lost-generations%e2%80%99-find-their-way/