What is the purpose of education?

Charlie Minogue, Headmaster of Moor Park in Shropshire, reflects upon the role that education plays in creating values and community...

We live in an increasingly competitive world and when the current generation of schoolchildren leaves to take their place within it, they will be judged against young people from across the globe as well as here in Britain. Such judgment will, in part, be based on examination results and it is an understandable response for schools and parents to push boys and girls towards achieving the highest possible grades. It is therefore tempting for schools and parents to pursue a narrow vision of education where excellent examination results are the only success factor but is this really all that education is about?

The 20th century American author Walker Percy once said, “you can get all A’s but still flunk life” and there is, therefore, an alternative viewpoint that education is actually about the acquisition of skills and that obtaining knowledge should be secondary to developing the necessary attributes to enable a young person to cope with change in the future. Examination results matter less in this version of education; building transferable skills such as leadership, flexibility of thought and responsible risk taking are considered to be much more important in preparing children to take their place in the world.

I would argue that these two visions of education are not mutually exclusive. The acquisition of knowledge will always be important, “knowledge is power, information is liberating” said Kofi Annan and there is no doubt that having facts at one’s fingertips is useful. Exams provide a mechanism for measuring the extent of our recall but it should be possible to acquire knowledge in such a way that skills are also taught. Excellent teachers have always known that children learn best when they have discovered things for themselves and the trick is to provide the conditions where this can happen. Developing curiosity is the key to engendering life-long learning and an attitude of mind that is able to cope with change whilst passing the inevitable exams.

I would also argue that an excellent education should go wider, even than this. The ability to form healthy relationships, whether they are personal or professional, will be crucial for individuals and for society going forwards. Schools play a crucial role when developing a strong moral compass in their pupils. A school community should actively model and celebrate such values as kindness and integrity and in doing so will produce young people who are more able to form positive relationships in the future.

I am very proud to lead such a community at Moor Park, a school that every year produces outstanding examination results to the full range of schools nationwide but at the same time teaches children to think for themselves within a strong moral framework. We are non-selective, use all of our beautiful 85-acre site for a bewildering range of extra-curricular activities (every child should find success in at least one area of school life) and yet still produce children who can pass exams, be curious about the world around them, hold a conversation and know right from wrong. The future need not be so worrying when education is like this.

For more information about Moor Park, please see the school's profile on School Search, the leading online guide to UK independent schools.