Game Theory of Education

It's hard to even think about what is going on politically with education. It certainly seems like no one really knows what they are doing. For the last fifty years governments have been tinkering at the edges, making changes that they hope will help raise standards but when they can't agree what raising standards actually means the whole thing ends up a battered old tatty political football. 

They talk about 'what parents want' as if all parents are an amorphous blob with a hive mind. They talk about curriculum, inspections, the qualification and training of teachers, uniform, testing, record keeping, grammar schools, academies, grant maintained, local authorities, education hubs, books that children should read, composers they should know. They rarely talk about children.

The latest headline said, "All schools could become grammars." Hmmm. Now, I could be confused but if all schools were grammar schools that would be a comprehensive education system.

The current policy seems to be an experiment in game theory (for the mathematicians) or social interaction theory (for the psychologists). It's a policy whereby all rules are lifted. Schools and parents (or the loudest of those) can do what they like and the government will just sit back and watch.

It's a risky strategy and one I can't imagine them sticking with for long. However, if you don't have children who are  in education at the moment then it is going to be quite interesting to watch.