There is a widespread illusion that the purpose of education, especially higher education, is to produce well-rounded human beings who are equipped with a basic thirst for knowledge and curiosity about the world around them. It is a wonderful concept but like most of capitalism's ideas it is a complete fraud. "England's department for higher and further education has been scrapped, just two years after its creation. The prime minister has created a new Department for Business, Innovation and Skills under Lord Mandelson. Universities do not figure in the name of the new department, whose remit is "to build Britain's capabilities to compete in the global economy". Number 10 said it would invest in a higher education system committed to widening participation. The role would include "maintaining world class universities, expanding access to higher education, investing in the UK's science base and shaping skills policy and innovation". (BBC News, 5 June)
Far from being concerned about an individual's intellectual development, inside capitalism the purpose of education is dictated by the industrial and commercial needs of the owning class. The UK must compete for world markets therefore it needs an educated working class. RD
The Glasgow & Edinburgh Branches Blog. Towards a better understanding of the world, in order to change it.
England's higher education system certainly tried its best to stifle my thirst for knowledge and curiosity about the world.
ReplyDeleteMust have taken the wrong course - Economics.
Education is great and fundamental to any possible progress that the human race has any possibility to make.
ReplyDeleteYour "Lord" makes the same fundamental, basic, comprehensive mistake that our King Obama makes.
They speak of the importance of education in making their particular Nations, COMPETITIVE, rather than the importance of education in making the world more COOPERATIVE.
It isn't a mistake.Education in capitalism is for work,i.e.to prepare for wage slavery.
ReplyDeleteBefore many workers went to college, working-class organisations had to provide their members with a general education, which of course was all the better since those studying it were better motivated and what they studied wasn’t biased in favour of the status quo. Link below is an education syllabus in use in the Socialist Party in the 1930s and 1940s, plus further details on the first two courses.
http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/education/index.html
Yes, mistake was a poorly chosen word.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the syllabus.
How prevalent was the SPGB educational agenda throughout Britain and the UK?
It is so progressive compared to anything that I am aware of, over here in the USA, land of the "rugged individualist".
The SPGB was and still is a small Party,but they were well attended.This is still a normal prcedure of rthe larger branches to do some education and discussion classes.i did say working class organisations,not just the SPGB.
ReplyDeleteThe Workers Education Association did these also,
http://www.wea.org.uk/aboutus/index.htm
some Unions,and so on.Most of those became subsumed into mainstream educational systems,still with a working class orientation, but mainly to produce Trade Union officials,Labour Party politicians.The most famous of which is Ruskin college in Oxford.
http://www.ruskin.ac.uk/