THERE might just be the prospect of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, thus reversing our normal procedure, but I am not betting on it. There are hopeful signs: Success for All is the most promising thing that has come out of the Department for Education and Skills for years: FE people being appointed to what may be important jobs looks like a good thing: the new interest in credit frameworks may actually lead somewhere at last.
But our sector is in a parlous state. Higher education minister Margaret Hodge has been quiet for a week or two, and there has not been a major scandal for a while, but we do not have many friends.
“What is the point of general FE?” Tony Blair’s education adviser, Andrew Adonis, famously asked - and we have not given him many answers. I still find the question breathtaking, but it is a clear indication of our failure to win any of the important arguments. We ought by now to be the only show in town for some of the most critical issues facing the nation’s education system: instead we are, at best, supporting actors. Most of the best lines are ours, but other people are delivering them or they are not being delivered at all.
The most depressing part is our failure to shape our own future. There have been some dire decisions forced upon us, but we - college principals - have never really challenged or engaged in the debate. Agreed, we have always had to struggle against ignorance and prejudice, but we could have had - we do have - a wonderful story to tell. Who has tried to tell it? Who did we make listen?
The opportunities have been there. Incorporation itself was clearly the best of all, saddled though we were with unachievable targets on inadequate money. The inclusion of sixth-form colleges was the Government’s mistake: it split the emergent sector and confused the issues.
But we made a monumental pig’s ear of those things that were under our own control. Remember Association of Colleges’ boss Roger Ward, with his promises of mega salaries and free champagne? Those who appointed him and cheered him on knew exactly what they were getting: Roger was not the mistake, he was just the consequence of theirs.
We fought the wrong battles. And when he went, after that doom-laden conference in Harrogate, with the board sitting stolidly on stage like a meeting of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviets, what happened? We forced the culpable board out, whereupon most of them were re-elected, and the show went on as before, but without the champagne.
The constitutional structure of the AoC is wrong and we have been foolish to let it continue. Why do we allow ourselves to be represented by people who know so little about FE? There are some very good, well-meaning governors, but they are part-time amateurs. Why do we perpetuate a system which has not worked? The impact is negligible, the silence deafening.
Our greatest failure has been the inability to produce a cadre of leaders who could command attention, speak for the sector, be listened to, and have the trust of the rest. As head of the Further Education Funding Council Bill Stubbs (now Sir William) looked in vain for that. Instead, too many people have been so terrified of rocking the boat that they ignored the fact that it was in danger of sinking. It is our besetting sin and it has weakened us to the point of collapse.
Too many people believe we cannot challenge the establishment, when it is transparently evident that that is the only thing worth doing.
On the publication of Learning Works, we should have gone to the barricades to make Baroness Helena Kennedy our president, our advocate. But Roger was never one willing to share the limelight. Sir William’s successor David Melville’s finest hour was his speech at the launch of that report, but all the questions from the floor were whinges. And then Blunkett and Blackstone put the boot in. Not sufficiently New Labour, not enough on message, not appealing enough to readers of the Daily Mail. So, yet more change: yet more people with no knowledge of FE given the task of running it.
But all is not lost. We are bloodied, but unbowed. FE is still the most innovative bit of the system. When they wanted units, we gave them units. We have widened participation, expanded HE, and are improving retention and achievement. It was just a bit tricky doing it all at once.
We can do the curriculum too, if they let us, and if we make the case. We understand it in a way that the Government does not. We can deliver a robust, credit-based system that will engage all learners and raise achievement and participation. And we - only we - can make the 50 per cent target achievable. It is still worth fighting for. But you will need to fight.
Colin Flint is retiring from Solihull College in December after 16 years as its principal
