Northern Lights: Some children are missing learning, work ethic and a structured day

This year, I have a personal interest. One of my grandchildren is moving from primary to secondary here in the city; and further south I have a granddaughter who is going to primary school for the first time.

Both transitions are milestones in a child's life, often emotionally challenging and not a little daunting.

I also have a grandson who has just taken his GCSEs and is moving into a mixture of academic and vocational post-16 learning, and a granddaughter who, having taken a couple of examinations this year, will be beginning her GCSE Year 11 from this week.

All of this brings home the critical impact Covid has had on every cohort and every part of the education journey for our young people.

Coupled, as this was, with (thankfully, now resolved) industrial action by teachers, and it's not surprising that there are real differences in outcome measures from this year's GCSE, A-level, BTEC and (where they exist) T-level results locally and across the country.

What is little appreciated is the absenteeism that is bedevilling the education system.

If there is one thing in the weeks ahead that is fundamental for every parent, grandparent and friend, it is to get young people to turn up at school.

In the last academic year, over one in five young people missed more than 10% of their education experience.

In such circumstances, children are not only missing learning, but the work ethic and a structured day go out of the window.

The consequences are far more than falling behind and taking a chunk of their adult life to catch up.

The way they see education and their life at home will have also changed.

The so-called “working from home" explosion has had an impact on parents who previously had to rise early to get to work and, consequently, to get their youngsters up and ready for school.

This is – and in future certainly will be – very different to the experience that many of us had in the past.

Nowadays, education must be delivered in very different ways to capture the imagination and the attention of young people who, let's face it, spend so much time on social media that short bursts of information and different ways of accessing and absorbing facts must be factored into the education process.

The challenge for teachers is to engage young people in a way that brings learning alive for them.

As someone who, long ago, qualified as a teacher in post-16 education and has continued to be involved in all kinds of ways with the education process ever since, I know it is much more difficult to teach than it was back then.

“Didactic teaching”, where you stand at the front of the class and students sit dutifully taking down notes from what used to be the blackboard just doesn't hack it.

It was much easier for teachers, but deeply dispiriting for many students. Some loved it, some found it a complete turnoff.

And now, the fact that we are losing so many students to absenteeism indicates we have a problem that needs addressing rapidly.

The Government have introduced a new vocational qualification known as T Levels.

This is in its experimental phase, but sadly, they have decided that in order to make this particular route successful, they intend to take the funding from BTEC National Diploma and equivalent qualifications.

Paradoxically, for a government that keeps on talking about "levelling up", this disadvantages the North of England much more than the south.

More post-16 students take BTEC National Diploma and equivalents in disadvantaged areas than they do in the more affluent.

To make matters worse, the dropout rate for T Levels over the two years they've been piloted has been catastrophic.

This all matters greatly, not just to the individual student, but to our local economy and for the well-being of the nation.

If young people don't get the right qualifications post-16, they can't go on to the apprenticeships, vocational training or university courses which suit them best.

Couple this with the highly renowned Sutton Trust evidence that the gap between the haves and have-nots has worsened – not just during but post the pandemic – and we have a real issue which will take a collaborative effort to put right.

Suffice it to say, education from the earliest years of a child's life through to job opportunities and building a family must be a fundamental goal that underpins everything we do.

We are moving into an entirely different era where artificial intelligence and robotics will require employees who can multitask, who are not simply equipped to go down the tramlines of a very narrow employment pathway.

Just as Leonardo da Vinci, all those centuries ago, blended the technical and the cultural, scholarship with practical solutions, so today we need to nurture and grow the future workforce and set aside the artificial divide between the academic and the vocational.

Old thinking, outdated practices and nostalgia for old certainties are understandable, but no longer acceptable.

Time now to be bold, innovative and create the high expectations and inspirational messaging that will lead to aspiration, determination and rejection of "second best".