Liz Kendall’s aspiration agenda is built on shaky ground
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http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/may/31/liz-kendall-aspiration-agenda-shaky-ground Version 0 of 1. Liz Kendall’s speech on children’s aspirations (Liz Kendall ‘will back white working-class young’, Report, 29 May) is welcome for putting education and inequality at the heart of the Labour leadership contest, after an election that treated education as largely peripheral while the economy and the NHS took centre stage. However, if Kendall is to have a credible voice, she should focus her efforts elsewhere and pay more attention to the considerable body of evidence that suggests aspirations are not the primary issue. While young people’s aspirations do differ, the differences are not as large as is assumed in speeches like Kendall’s Her agenda is nothing new. The 2010 Social Mobility Strategy made 29 references to aspirations. Gordon Brown once argued that “the greater failure is not the child who doesn’t reach the stars, but the child who has no stars that they feel they are reaching for” and Cameron famously pledged to build an “aspiration nation”. Yet the aspiration agenda is built on shaky ground: a major longitudinal study (the millennium cohort study) found that at their child’s birth, 97% of mothers wanted their child to go to university. A 2011 report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation included detailed case studies in three deprived communities. These revealed that 81% of 13-year-olds wanted to go to university. My colleague Dr Sam Baars has also shown that the differences between socioeconomic groups’ aspirations are unlikely to explain the massive differences in their long-term outcomes; while young people’s aspirations do differ, the differences are far from being as large as is assumed in speeches like Kendall’s. Unfortunately, Labour’s prospective leader has not only misdiagnosed the cause of the educational inequality that plagues disadvantaged communities, she has also misdiagnosed the cure. There is no shortage of aspiration-raising initiatives from social enterprises and charities offering the sort of “inspiring visitors” programmes that she proposes. And as the Education Endowment Foundation explains: “Interventions which aim to raise aspirations appear to have little to no positive impact on educational attainment … evidence suggests that most young people actually have high aspirations, implying that much underachievement results not from low aspiration itself, but from a gap between the aspirations that do exist and the knowledge and skills that are required achieve them.” Kendall has brought to the fore a critical issue for social justice: the many communities in which young people are trapped into poverty and deprivation with few opportunities to aim for. She should be applauded for this. However, if she is to be a credible leader, her proposals need to be informed by a growing body of evidence as to what actually makes a difference. Her energies would be far better directed towards creating a supply of high-quality early-years childcare in the communities that need it most, providing wrap-around family support; and tackling the upcoming teacher and headteacher recruitment crisis.Loic MenziesDirector, LKMco My memo to ministers: change the experience and the aspiration looks after itself • So the Department for Work and Pensions expects 40,000 more children to be pushed into poverty by the lowering of the benefit cap (Report, 29 May). Unless, that is, “these families respond by making behaviour change, for example, moving into work”, in which case they are “likely to move out of relative poverty”. Well, yes. Likewise, perhaps, if they find a Rembrandt in the loft or discover oil? Instead, the poor revel in their disabilities or luxuriate in their lack of opportunities. How much better things would be with a dose of “aspiration”. In 38 years as an east London community worker I’ve never met a parent who didn’t want their child to get on and lead a fulfilling life, but our aspirations are shaped by our experiences. My memo to ministers, copied without amendment to Labour leadership contenders: change the experience and the aspiration looks after itself.David RobinsonFounder, Community Links, London • I’m delighted that Andy Burnham believes Labour should recognise that “entrepreneurs” are as valuable as teachers and nurses (Report, 29 May). What concrete proposals does Mr Burnham have to ensure that entrepreneurs are paid as much as teachers and nurses?Alan HarrisonWalsall, West Midlands |