On education

 Will Lloyd suggests the unthinkable (to most)- Why it’s time to abolish schools.

I'm reminded of mentions made to education in Peter F Hamilton's Night Dawn trilogy, where education has been made irrelevant by implanted memory technologies so instead of school kids go to 'day clubs' while their parents work. It is true for many this is what all schools function as. 

Having worked in secondary education on and off for over 6 years my view is that extending compulsory education was a cruel mistake. IThe Japanese have the right idea in that compulsory education end at 15 (middle school), and I would advocate for a similar system in the UK, perhaps combined with a new CSE type exam for school leavers to take at 15. before they can get a job. 

UPDATED 24/02- Today I saw (via Guido) this report by the IEA on post-Covid reforms. One suggestion that interested me is changing the primary to secondary transition age, I remember hearing during my OGCE of research that suggested it was better to do at 12 instead of 11. 

Adding on to my earlier points on school leavers at 15, I would suggest moving the starting age to 6, leaving something similar to the US or Japan, preschool up to 6, primary from 6 to 12, then secondary from 12, with the option to leave at 15, 16 or 18 depending on the route taken.

Another change I have seen in some schools that I would also suggest keeping is having the kids stay in one room all day and having the teachers come to them (obviously they would still have to go to specialist rooms for Science, DT, etc). This has the advantage of having the kids settled at the start of the lesson and would be less disruptive, and quieter (it makes more sense to have a small number of adults moving around instead of 100's of children).