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Lord Mandelson welcomes attack on schools
20.10.09
Lord Mandelson today accepted business leaders' recent attacks on school standards, saying their concerns will help boost the education system.
"Blunt" contributions, like that of Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy, are an "important part of driving this country to improve", the Business Secretary said.
Last week, Sir Terry became the latest businessman to raise concerns when he warned that standards in some schools are "woefully low", leaving employers to bear the consequences. His comments were later echoed by BT chairman Sir Michael Rake who called for GCSEs and A-levels to be replaced by the broader International Baccalaureate.
Speaking at the CBI Higher Education Summit in central London today, Lord Mandelson told delegates: "I want to acknowledge upfront that I accept that employers have concerns about aspects of the education system in this country. I know that many of you believe that the key problems lie in early education.
"I believe in a demand-led system and hearing and responding to business expectations are of course critical to that. Is Terry Leahy here today? Perhaps I shouldn't say this, but blunt contributions like that are an important part of driving this country to improve. Every little helps.
"But I think it's worth saying that education policy is a long game, and changes to the way we teach and train deliver benefits and improvements across a timeframe of many years. Often at a rate that is always going to seem slow in business terms."
In his stinging attack, Sir Terry said Tesco depends on good quality education.
He told delegates at the IGD convention: "Sadly, despite all the money that has been spent, standards are still woefully low in too many schools. Employers like us, and I suspect many of you, are often left to pick up the pieces."
There are too many agencies and organisations issuing edicts to schools, which distracts teachers from teaching, he said.
In his speech today, Lord Mandelson also gave an indication that the Government will look at raising the £3,225 cap on tuition fees.
He said that both higher and further education will be subject to "increasingly tight fiscal constraint for the foreseeable future".
But this should not impact on quality, he added.
"Expanding investment means universities will have to deepen and diversify their sources of non-public income through commercialisation of their teaching or research expertise, through a more professional approach to endowments and through greater resource efficiency.
"We will also have to look at the contribution that individuals make to the cost of higher education, which we will do through the independent fees review."
The review is due to be launched later this year, but will not conclude until after the next general election.
He added that it was important to "keep up the pressure" on universities to widen access to higher education.
And he rejected a recommendation in a recent report by the CBI on higher education to suspend the Government's target to get 50% of young people into higher education.
"There is no silver bullet on social mobility," he said, "but education and higher skills are as close as you get to one".
"That means keeping up the pressure to widen access to higher education - both with respect to the time in your life when you can access higher education, and with respect to your social background, which should be irrelevant."
Lord Mandelson backed the CBI's calls for more competition between universities, saying it will encourage them to improve and tailor courses. The "key drivers" of change are students, he said.
"The more information students have on courses and their outcomes the more their choices will drive universities to improve."
Yesterday Professor John Holman, a government advisor on science, admitted that higher fees could be needed to ensure the future of the UK's universities. He suggested it was "difficult" to see how quality could be maintained without higher fees.
University leaders have called for more funding, but such a move to introduce higher fees is likely to be highly unpopular with the public.
