Education Office in Wales Looks to Colleges and Schools to Form Partnerships

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The Welsh education office Estyn has published a report that highlights the need for schools and colleges in Wales to improve their relations in order to benefit students, as it has been found that not enough of them are collaborating with neighbour institutions to provide the best range of education.

Rather than working with their fellow institutions, some schools and colleges find themselves competing against them for greater student numbers and government support. This results in the range of courses available to students being severely limited, as in order to keep numbers up institutions are compelled to neglect courses that fewer students sign up for.

Language of Competition?

There is also the added problem of language. Many colleges do not offer courses taken in the Welsh language, meaning that students used to Welsh school courses have to study at college in English. It seems that much of this failure of schools and colleges to form working partnerships comes from a basic lack of trust and familiarity, all sharpened by the usual, ugly issue of funding.

When education institutions become financial competitors, it is inevitable that the students they are there for will start to suffer the consequences, as the institutions are compelled to put self-preservation instincts before educational ones. “Learners must be put first,” says John Graystone, chief executive of fforwm. “They need to be able to choose from a wide range of options, and they need to be able to follow academic and vocational courses at the same time.”

According to Estyn’s report, only about a third of welsh schools with sixth forms have a working relationship with colleges, and only around 5% of sixth-formers take college A-level courses. It seems that there is still a shroud of skepticism and distrust clouding the view of colleges, which have always had to work against the prejudice that they are somehow inferior to schools as learning providers, or are only for under-achievers and school drop-outs.

The Impact of Competition

Not only is this untrue, it is now affecting the education of more and more students, who become confused and misled by school/college distrust and competition, and disabled by conflicting college courses and timetables. Ironically, it is believed that schools themselves have the most to gain from college collaboration. “Estyn’s report shows that schools, rather than colleges, gain most from collaboration,” says Graystone, “It strengthens the argument for a reconfiguration of education services provided by schools and colleges for learners aged 16 and over.”

He also gives an indication that perhaps the government’s funding system should be redesigned, as much of the bad blood between institutions arises “because the funding system for schools and colleges encourages competition between providers.” The overall feeling, then, is that students should return to being beneficiaries of the education system, not its staple trading commodity.

Daniel Wallis

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