Lucy Powell - Let's move away from 'dog eat dog' culture in education: Points of View

This week, the Education Secretary hosted a summit attended by heads, college principals, mayors, business leaders and a small number of representatives from the MAT sector, during which she discussed the government's plans to raise the profile of technical education. This follows a promise by Prime Minister Andy Burnham that new technical routes for those aged 14+ will be offered from September 2028, in a bid to tackle the rising NEET crisis Powell has said that she wants to see schools moving towards a culture where students are not pitted against one another, but rather a 'self-supporting peer-to-peer culture'. While this might be welcome news to many, some are questioning whether the infrastructure is in place to make such an offer in just two years. Powell has promised the changes will be 'fully funded', but how will this be achieved? And is technical education the silver bullet solution to the rising crises in education? Will it stop competition within and between schools? Or will it open yet another way to hold schools accountable?