There is a good case to be made for the increased importance of speaking skills in our new age of machines. With the UK economy’s stronger-than-expected recent performance widely linked to AI investment, it is vital that people are equipped for the kinds of in-person, public-facing jobs that are least likely to be automated. A concerning decline in children’s language development, both in the UK and internationally, has been linked to high screen use. There is a grim irony in a situation where tech companies both compete with humans for contracts and undermine our ability to talk to one other.
The Guardian has previously backed efforts to more strongly embed speaking skills, or oracy, in British schools. In a speech on Thursday, Lucy Powell promised to give them equal status to reading and writing in English (education is devolved, so her main responsibility is for England, but there are parallel initiatives in the other nations). Yet with promised updates to the national curriculum postponed, and plans for special educational needs reform causing deep anxiety to families, schools and councils, the hardest questions for the education secretary are about priorities. Following negative feedback from schools, she has also asked Ofsted to look again at its new inspection framework.
The curriculum review completed last year was deliberately cautious, reflecting the Starmer administration’s overall tone. Since then, England’s high scores in maths and science, in international tests, have shown that standards in some subjects have risen. But in English, an overly prescriptive and grammar-obsessed curriculum is putting pupils off. This is the obvious place to start with new speaking skills. The delayed curriculum revisions should set out how it is going to be done.
The energy that Ms Powell brings to the education brief is welcome. She is right to refuse to “sit still and polish the status quo”, especially as the Conservative party seeks to take credit for improvements to English schools that were a legacy of New Labour. The decline of the arts in schools must also be tackled. An improved vocational offer is arguably most urgent of all.
But there is no point denying the challenges around implementation. The government is already committed to the introduction of new maths and English qualifications, to replace demoralising GCSE resits. Reform of the special educational needs system will need to be carefully monitored. Many experts in the college sector believe that the scrapping of BTec qualifications, in favour of T-levels and V-levels, is a mistake. This too needs to be closely watched. A stronger steer from government on universities is also needed. Bridget Phillipson’s decision to unfreeze fees after eight years has only slightly eased their funding difficulties. Reform of unfair student loan terms must come sooner rather than later.
Ms Powell is not unique, among Andy Burnham’s new brooms, in facing a daunting set of challenges. Her pledge to go “further and deeper on curriculum reform” is welcome; the world is changing fast and schools need help to keep up. A strengthened emphasis on the spoken word is just one part of this. But in the coming months, she will need to make decisions about where to put her energies. There are only so many changes, on top of special educational needs reforms, that schools can be expected to cope with.
