the times | Wednesday January 26 2022 29
Leading articles
education, politics, commerce, science, techno-
logy and the arts. Their expertise is diverse but
all are convinced that education needs to
be reformed for a generation, comparable to
RA Butler’s Education Act of 1944, rather than be
subordinated to the shorter-term cycle of
electoral politics and Treasury spending rounds.
In the past seven months the commission has
taken evidence from more than 300 witnesses,
including 11 former education secretaries and two
ex-prime ministers. The consensus view, not least
among parents and pupils, is that what is being
taught is only tangentially connected to the
requirements of success in later life. In particular,
technology is not as central to education as it
ought to be. A salutary counter-example is
Estonia, whose pioneering educational system
ensures that technology is integrated into every
subject rather than being a separate discipline.
Education in England in particular has long
been hampered by an artificial distinction
between knowledge and skills. The philosophy of
Victorian reformers, such as Thomas Arnold, was
that training young minds in critical disciplines
would best equip them for life. Certainly a breadth
of expertise is essential to solve the problems of
our own era. Yet the existing curriculum neitheradequately incorporates advances in knowledge
nor teaches skills in sufficient depth to prepare
children for productive working lives.
As well as the questions of how and what child-
ren are taught, the commission has considered
how they are assessed. The cancellation of exams
because of the pandemic for two successive years
has underlined that the system of assessment is
bureaucratic and unwieldy. It focuses on what
children have failed to learn rather than on what
they know and could exploit in adulthood. The
commission has heard from many sources that
about a third of young people are needlessly writ-
ten off as failures by the assessment system,
whereas top-achieving pupils are not stretched
enough. Yet new technologies give schools the
tools to tailor their tuition more efficiently, and
thereby draw out ambition rather than stultify it.
Our commission has much work still to do. We
encourage our readers to contribute to its deliber-
ations. One conclusion we can firmly state is that
teaching is not only a vital task but a noble voca-
tion. Those who embark on it deserve respect and
admiration for their efforts. They need support in
the work of conveying enthusiasm for learning.
Helping them to accomplish this would put
students and the nation still more in their debt.the public the chance to assess the evidence that
the Met has already concluded reaches the
threshold of a potential crime. Crucially, it may
also allow MPs to make their own minds up on
whether the prime minister misled parliament,
which would ordinarily be an automatic resigna-
tion matter. It goes without saying that a refusal to
publish the report in full would invite accusations
of a cover-up and would only deepen doubts over
Mr Johnson’s honesty.
Of course, the prime minister will be hoping that
the report does not allow MPs to reach such firm
conclusions. He will be able to argue that the ques-
tion of whether crimes were committed is now a
matter for the police to determine. In any case the
Met has not said whether the prime minister is
under investigation. And while there is no
question that Mr Johnson’s answers in parliament
to questions on what he knew about parties in
Downing Street and his attendance at them have
been misleading, proving that any of them consti-
tuted an outright lie, defined as a deliberate
untruth, is a high bar. Casuistry may suffice for
those MPs willing to be persuaded.Meanwhile Mr Johnson‘s allies will urge MPs to
keep the faith with a prime minister who delivered
a whopping majority, Brexit and a successful vac-
cine programme. They can also point to immedi-
ate challenges such as a possible war in Ukraine
and a looming cost of living crisis as a reasons to
stick with him. Above all they can point to the
absence of anyone apparently willing to challenge
the prime minister. For all the talk of anonymous
letters from backbenchers demanding a vote of no
confidence, no senior figure has yet emerged to
lead the opposition to him.
Yet Conservative MPs will have to balance this
against evidence that the public has made its mind
up about Mr Johnson, with only 8 per cent of
voters believing he has been honest about the
parties. His approval rating is now minus 39,
comparable to that of Jeremy Corbyn in 2019.
They will also know that the parties controversy is
just the latest in a series of ethical scandals to
engulf a chaotic No 10 operation that is the subject
of a police investigation. MPs may yet grant Mr
Johnson another reprieve, but at what risk to their
party’s brand and their own reputations?narrator’s alter-ego blows up credit-card records
to eliminate debt. In the Chinese version, viewers
are informed that “the police rapidly figured out
the whole plan and arrested all criminals, success-
fully preventing the bomb from exploding”.
In Britain the vogue for pulling down statues
suggests a similarly activist approach to inconven-
ient cultural artefacts. Perhaps it is time to follow
China and reshape the classics to better align
them with modern values. Anna and Karenin
could get through the difficult patch in their rela-
tionship through couples therapy. Studying for a
part-time degree would allow Jude the Obscure toachieve social mobility and fulfil his intellectual
ambitions. There’s no need to torch Manderley:
Rebecca’s memory could be expunged, at no cost
to architectural heritage, through a makeover.
Perhaps Lulu Lytle could help.
Nor should we stop at fiction. Crucifixion is
unsuitable reading matter for the young: better
have Pontius Pilate give Jesus a suspended sen-
tence and learn from him about the damaging ef-
fect of Roman colonialism on Palestine. It would,
of course, preclude the Resurrection and the Life
Everlasting, but that would be a small price to pay
for making the Bible a safe literary space.Learning for Life
A special Times commission report is calling for changes to education
that would make it better suited to the world of work and the digital age
The pandemic has imposed immense costs in
lives, living standards and public health. The most
enduring burdens will be borne by young people,
whose education has been disrupted and whose
life chances may suffer in consequence. Repairing
the damage is urgent. Yet, while the crisis has
aggravated inequalities in educational provision
and outcomes, it did not create these problems.
Tackling them requires a longer-term assessment
of where the education system is failing. The crisis
ought to provide the impetus for change.
The Times established an independent commis-
sion last year to consider ways to reform education
and make it more suitable for the digital age. We
publish the commission’s interim findings today.
They point to an existing curriculum that is
outdated and remote from the world of work. In its
final report, to be published in the summer, the
commission will make recommendations on how
to narrow that chasm and ensure that education
encourages individuality. Survey evidence sug-
gests there are big potential rewards in business
success as well as enhanced social mobility.
The commission was originally proposed by Sir
Anthony Seldon, the educationist. It is chaired by
Rachel Sylvester, the Times writer, and its mem-
bers are drawn from various fields encompassingGray Zone
A police investigation adds to the pressure on Boris Johnson
Not many prime ministers would regard an an-
nouncement by the Metropolitan Police that they
were launching an inquiry into potential criminal
behaviour in Downing Street as a reprieve. Yet for
a few hours yesterday, this is no doubt what it felt
like for Boris Johnson. After weeks of stonewalling
questions regarding Downing Street lockdown
parties with the answer “wait for Sue Gray’s
report”, the opening of a police investigation based
on information provided by Ms Gray herself
raised the possibility that the senior civil servant’s
report could be delayed for weeks or even months.
That promised to buy Mr Johnson the gift of time:
time for the public to lose interest, or something
bigger such as a war in Europe to divert public
attention. Besides the police may yet clear Mr
Johnson of breaking any law.
But his reprieve did not last long. By yesterday
afternoon the police had informed Ms Gray that it
had no objection to her publishing her report and
she signalled she intended to hand it over to the
prime minister this week, perhaps as soon as today.
On the assumption that Mr Johnson agrees to
publish the report in full, that will give MPs andHappier Endings
China rewrites a classic film to deliver a more politically suitable message
Adjusting plotlines to suit the mores of the time is
as old as storytelling. After the restoration of the
Stuart monarchy in 1660, the story of a mad king
and bad father dying miserably didn’t sit comfort-
ably with the zeitgeist, so King Lear was rewritten
to leave him with a throne and a fulfilling family
life. Thomas Bowdler’s enthusiasm for excising
the naughty bits turned him into a verb.
Now China has taken up the practice. In the
latest manifestation of President Xi’s war against
decadence, Fight Club has been rewritten to fit
Beijing’s moral code. In the original 1999 film, a
dystopian critique of American capitalism, theUK: England take on the West Indies in
Barbados in the third T20 match of their
tour; anti-Covid hospitality restrictions are
eased in Northern Ireland.
The thin sun begins
to set and the rooks
return to their roost.
Buccaneering their
way home, they
form raucous rivers
in the darkening
sky, and when they reach their rookery they
get even louder. This massed anarchists’
choir is one of the great treats of winter.
Sometimes made up of tens of thousands of
inhabitants, rookeries are as much part of
the countryside as the parish church, and
they peal out wildly over the frosts and
darkling clay from their tall steeples of oak,
pine, beech and ash. Do not go gentle into
that good night, Dylan Thomas wrote, and
these sociable members of the crow family
heed his advice. jonathan tulloch
In 1998 President Clinton gave a press
conference in which he denied having
“sexual relations” with Monica Lewinsky, a
White House intern.
José Mourinho, pictured,
football manager, Roma,
Tottenham Hotspur
(2019-21), Manchester
United (2016-18),
Chelsea (2004-07, 2013-
15), 59; Prof Igor
Aleksander, neural
systems engineer, designed (in the 1980s) the
first neural pattern recognition system, 85;
Anita Baker, singer, Sweet Love (1986), 64;
Robert Cailliau, collaborated with Tim
Berners-Lee on the system that led to the
World Wide Web, 75; Adam Crozier,
chairman, BT Group, Whitbread and
Kantar, Asos (2018-21), chief executive, ITV
(2010-17), 58; Angela Davis, US political
activist, 78; Ellen DeGeneres, US comedian,
Ellen (1994-98), and talk-show host, 64;
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor and violinist,
music and artistic director, Los Angeles
Philharmonic, 41; Jules Feiffer, cartoonist
(Pulitzer prize, 1986) and writer, Carnal
Knowledge (1971), 93; Sir Christopher
Hampton, screenwriter, Dangerous Liaisons
(1988), 76; Rachel Hore, writer, A Beautiful
Spy (2021), 62; Kim Hughes, cricketer,
Australia captain (1979-84), 68; Paul Lee,
chairman, Opera North, 76; Prof Dame
Anne Mills, health economist, deputy
director and provost, London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 71;
Redmond Morris (Lord Killanin), film
producer, The Reader (2008), 75; Anders
Fogh Rasmussen, secretary-general, Nato
(2009-14), prime minister of Denmark
(2001-09), 69; Dame Paula Rego,
printmaker and figurative painter, 87;
Andrew Ridgeley, pop singer, Wham!, 59;
Simon Roberts, chief executive,
Sainsbury’s, 51; Jeff Smith, Labour MP for
Manchester Withington, 59; Heather
Stanning, rower, double Olympic gold
medallist (2012, 2016, women’s coxless pair),
37; Mark Urban, diplomatic and defence
editor, Newsnight, and writer, The Skripal
Files: The Life and Near Death of a Russian
Spy (2018), 61; Laura Wade-Gery,
chairwoman, NHS Digital, and director,
John Lewis Partnership (2017-21), UK retail,
Marks and Spencer (2011-16), 57.
“One should make movies innocently — the
way Adam and Eve named the animals, their
first day in the garden.” Orson Welles, actor,
director, writer, The Orson Welles Story (1982)
Nature notes
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