Editorial

Abstract

England's state education system is increasingly controlled from the centre while being highly fragmented. Elements within the system, and forces acting on it, lean towards privatisation. Public, preparatory and private schools endure. Grammar schools persist, vitiating fair educational opportunities in many localities and preventing the sustained development in practice of a better conception of education for all. At every age and stage, high-stakes summative assessment enforces a narrowed curriculum, straitjackets pedagogical approaches and drains the joy from teaching and learning. Labelling young people by so-called 'ability', and segregating cohorts into 'ability' sets, conspire to limit what is possible for individuals and groups. Assumptions about 'ability' or a specious 'ability-range' are yet to be eradicated. Nor have we yet shaped pedagogy commensurate with the conception of children as the people best trusted to know how they learn, as intrinsically driven to learn, and able when conditions are conducive always to go on learning. Nevertheless, the comprehensive ideal is alive, thanks to the dedication of practitioners and educationalists, the commitment of parents and carers, and the work of trade unions and activist groups campaigning for it on the ground. As a journal, FORUM will continue to be a platform from which to argue for comprehensive education. Selection, division, elitism and all that goes to make up a competitive mindset in education will be challenged in our pages. FORUM will spread news of the success of comprehensive education in this country and beyond. It will explore the implications and meet the many challenges of the comprehensive ideal, and so take it forward.