9 Education

I’ll come back to health when I’ve thought it through a bit more but let’s consider education for a bit.

Current policy is geared to getting people into university. Once in university students are expected to pay towards aspects of their education and student loans are set up specifically for this purpose. This leaves graduates in the unenviable position of have hefty debts before they even get a job.

Education should be paid in full for the entire time a youngster is training for their role in life regardless of background. This is to ensure not only does everyone have the same opportunities but that society does not miss the benefit of talents that may otherwise go wasted. This covers nursery school, primary school, secondary school and any further education up to a specified age according to the requirements of the role they are to undertake in society. Individuals shouldn’t be expected to pay for books, equipment, premises, teachers or anything else; however – this should only apply where there is a need for such training.

Since society needs children to be educated and is responsible, in loco parentis, for those children while they are away from their parents it follows, that up to secondary school at least, society should be responsible for feeding and clothing them. At least one full uniform set every year and a good meal every lunchtime. If society is willing to pay for the meals, society gets to specify what the meals consist of. There is no reason a choice should be made available. Providing a set meal each day is cheaper than funding several alternatives, of which children tend to gravitate to the most unhealthy! Society says - if you want to take advantage of the free meals then your children eat what is given them. This way society can ensure children get one nutritious meal a day and this crosses over into maintaining overall public health.

We have a lot more people to cover a much wider variety of roles than a tribe and most of us should be able to fit in somewhere. However, the principle remains the same - we can't all be healers, someone has to be a hunter. For example, everyone does not have the right to go to university and indeed not everyone has the desire to go to university. Everyone should have the same opportunity via the education system but this is not the same thing at all. The education system needs to start off with general education and gradually become more specific, pupils branching out into areas suited to their abilities and desires – providing society has a need for them. If someone wants to move into an area they have no aptitude for and/or which has sufficient people already then they should only be able to do so if they pay for it and their tuition does not cause problems in the mainline system.

This is another area we, as a society, need to change our attitudes. For some reasons we see university as the highest level of achievement. So it is, for a certain number of professions. We need to understand that other types of education like apprenticeships, city and guilds and hands-on experience are just as valid and perhaps more appropriate.

People who are academically brilliant should have their tuition paid for but only in the field in which they are brilliant and where there would be an end benefit to society. By the same token, only those who show an aptitude for other types of work should have their tuition paid for - in that field.

That’s how I see society’s obligation but how does it affect individuals?

Take one child coming up through the system. Gradually he or she will move in a certain direction, it could be one the child is interested in, or one the teacher thinks they’re better suited for or, if he or she’s lucky, it’ll be the same thing. There are an awful lot of ways things can go wrong here because we are dealing with individual views and growing and ever changing children. Perhaps early education could include aptitude tests, following the general trend of the child as he or she grows and interests change. Once they decide which way they want to go it is up to them to prove to society that they, in preference to another should have their tuition paid for in a particular field. They compete for a certain number of places that are available only to the best in the field.

I can’t think of any other way than examination to decide who is better suited to a specific area. However, instead of pass and fail grades each student is allocated a percentage. If X number of students are needed for the next stage applicants are accepted starting at the top percentage and continue down the scale until all places are filled. The rest do not qualify for full state-funding. If, working down the percentages, there are too many people at e.g. 87% for the remaining places then other factors need to be assessed depending on the area they are competing in.

In order to ensure as many people as possible are directed according to their talents, education groups need to be smaller so everyone can be assessed and guided individually. What is this trend to ‘bigger is better’? Bigger primary schools, massive secondary schools and enormous educational centres provide environments where not only individuals can be overlooked but where large numbers can become mobs and gangs. Small groups can be reasoned with and directed; mobs cannot. Small groups more readily lend themselves to a feeling of community, belonging – things that society needs to instil in its children from an early age so they feel the need to contribute when they take their place in the world.

4 Taxation - do we need it and is it currently fair?

Money governs every aspect of society; taxation is the tool we use to raise money. Do we have to have taxation? Yes, of course we do. There are certain areas of our society that we have responsibility for as a group if we want to survive; transport, communication, education, defence and so on. Our way of getting these things done is by payment. Everyone pays something towards the pot to keep our infrastructure in place - taxation.

Understanding that we have to have taxes, now we have to work out a fair system of collection. I think our system has become complicated over time as society has evolved. There are numerous taxes, direct, indirect and hidden, and it seems to me that whatever way you look at it, some unfortunate section of society ends up paying more than the rest. If it’s not fair it will generate ill-feeling, resentment and eventually, social disorder.

My thought is that it’s only fair if it’s seen to be fair and it can only be seen to be fair if it’s simple.

• Is it currently fair? Not to my mind. Is it fair that someone living in one part of the country should receive benefits that someone elsewhere in the country isn’t, when they are paying taxes for the same services? Of course not!

• Can it currently be seen to be fair? Again, not to my mind. Some people are eligible for tax relief, others aren’t. Can we see who these people are, why they are eligible for relief and be sure we’re not paying more than our share? No!

• Is it simple? Guess what – not to my mind!

So, what do I think would be fair? Well, put at its very basic, purely from a fairness point of view and accepting that nothing in this life is completely fair for everyone I would say…

…we should pay on the basis that we are all inconvenienced to the same degree.

Paying a set amount is clearly not fair. £10 a week, for example, out of the pocket of a pensioner could be life threatening if it meant they couldn’t eat or keep warm. £10 a week out of the pocket of a millionaire simply wouldn’t be noticed.

But is paying according to a scale – a higher percentage the more you earn, or paying nothing if you’re earning at the bottom of the pay-scale - any fairer? High earners lose 40% of their income. Not as life threatening as £10 for the pensioner but what incentive is there to stay in the UK and keep contributing? What incentive to work harder if the more you earn the higher the rate of tax? On the other hand, what incentive to work at all if someone else will pay for you?