A Desolation of Learning: Is This the Education Our Children Deserve? - Softcover

'Class War&' (2002) was Chris Woodhead's verdict on the systemic failures within the British Education system and a bold agenda for reform. 'A Desolation of Learning' is a retrospective on the 8 years since he resigned as Chief Inspector of Schools amidst a flurry of controversy over his views on the importance of a strong and politically independent schools inspectorate. - Are our schools any better? - Have standards improved? - What are the key areas he would target for reform today? Woodhead argues that the Labour administration has wrongly shaped expectations and policy based on a misguided and questionable vision of a social utopia and a misguided linking of educational attainment and economic well-being. Political pressure has resulted in the emasculation of organisations like OfSTED and the National College for School Leadership, whose remit is reduced to peddling ministerial enthusiasms. Woodhead argues that we need: 1) independent school headteachers to assert their independence; 2) the Conservative party to find its voice and generate momentum for change; 3) schools to be free of bureaucratic constraint, and parents to be empowered, via the implementation of a voucher scheme, so that a genuine educational market may be established in Britain.

Chris Woodhead has over 35 years' experience in education. He has taught English in grammar and comprehensive schools, lectured in education at Oxford University, and worked in senior posts in three Local Education Authorities. He ran the National Curriculum Council and the Schools Curriculum Assessment Authority before becoming Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools. He resigned from this post in November 2000. In 2002 he published his verdict on British education, Class War, to widespread acclaim. He is Chairman of Cognita and Professor of Education at the University of Buckingham. He continues to broadcast and write regularly on education policy.