Day Fifteen
As I start this today I am really
feeling like giving up and that I cannot keep this going. It feels like just too much today on top of
everything else I still have to do.
However, I am not going to spoil this run of posts and so I shall dig
deep and write about the last few days.
The last three days has been spent
at the Gulf Education Supplies and Solutions (GESS) Exhibition in Dubai. It has
been interesting and I have had some great conversations. I have met some very smart people with some
good ideas about how Finland might proceed into the global education
market. OK, disclosure, I really hate
what I have just written – ‘global education market’. Since when has education been a market? I thought education was the name given to the
(usually) structured process of learning or instruction given at an
institution. And this is the bug that
has been under my skin crawling away all week.
Frankly, as I walked around the
exhibition and looked at the stands I felt a sense of depression and despair. I know the apparent conflict of interests I
am publically stating here with regard to my job, but I am going to be open and transparent
here. You see so many of the stands seemed
like desperate attempts to try and monetize the process of education, to try
and find a viable business model out of which to profit from the process of
preparing the next generation of humans to function in the world.
Now please do not get me wrong, I
have an economics and finance background.
I know only to well that everything has to be paid for and that nothing
is free. In fact it really irritates me
when people say that education in Finland is free, because of course it is
not. It is free at the point of
provision but it is paid for from tax payers money, make no mistake. There is of course a cost and not just a
financial one but the opportunity cost of education provision.
So why my discomfort?
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| The Gravedigger |
For some reason I was reminded of a
joke my late father used to say when I was a kid and we spoke about what work I
might do when I grow up. He would always
advise me to be an undertaker, claiming that there would always be work and the
tougher things got then the better business would be. (Cheerful man my father!) - He
was (trying) to be funny. His point was
though to try and monetize something that people would always need, for as he would
say, “People are always going to die, trust me on that one son!” Death as a
business opportunity.
So as I looked at some of these
stalls I felt a kind of sadness as people had looked at education in the same
way. “How can we corner the market on
school uniforms?” - By the way do not get me started on school
uniforms – we do not have them in Finland and perhaps in a future post I will
write how an event with school uniforms changed the whole direction of my life.
Not just the school uniform stalls
of course, but so many of the products were not really attempts to improve
learning, enhance education and make the world better. A few were that, but most seemed more cynical
attempts to commoditize education without any real improvement or leaps
forward.
I felt the need to step back and ask
myself why we as a species have this systematic approach to preparing our young
for the future world and given that we do, why that should then be seen as a
market to be exploited for the benefit of profitability?
There is middle ground here I feel, there
is a place for free and competitive markets in the world for some goods and
services, but does the market mechanism best serve the provision of all goods
and services? I think that Michael JSandel put it very well when he writes about the difference between a market
economy and a market society. A market society where everything is for sale
is a step too far.
I want to reflect on this and I have
to say that my feeling is nothing like as bad as it has been after spending a
day going around an arms and security exhibition. But that as they say, is another story. This one will probably also be continued
sometime in the future. (wow - I did it ... day 15!)
Nice piece Mark. I've spent a lot of time with a foot in both camps- private and public setor. I've built learning businesses and building one as we speak. I've invested in learning business, floated and sold learning businesses. I've also spent decades working for free in the public sector in educational charities and arts organisations. My own view is that both sides talk past each other and share many traits. Sure some companies are rapacious in trying to make money but so are many private schools. Companies are sometimes competitive with bad politics but so are many Universities, where students and staff compete ferociously for reserach money and grades. In truth both sides have their good and bad. One question I do have is about private schooling. This is huge in the Middle East and in the UK, where it is a relatively small percentage of the provision but has a huge distorting effect on society. In practice, it makes the UK education system unreformable. Education itself is often involved in the private sector. Universities claim they are not but the huge amounts of money made from foreign students in UK is a case in point. They participate when it is in their interest to participate. In short, both sides have a lot to learn from each other.
ReplyDeleteDonald - first of all thank you for reading and commenting on my blog. I am flattered, really. I respect your own writing and thoughts on education.
DeleteI think that we know from previous conversations, comments, presentations and chats over a beer, that we have more in common than we disagree on.
I do agree pretty well with your comments above, for sure on private schools and on the problems on both sides of the private / public divide. Universities and the public sector is a long way from perfect and that applies in the UK, US, Middle East and Europe - including Finland.
As with Slowbow - I have nothing to really debate you on, more is the pity as that is always fun. In Slowbows comments it is interesting how he also ended up depressed, despite good conversations. I wonder why that is, because an education fair should ideally leave you inspired and excited, right? As an educator you should leave thinking - wow, I want to try that, and use that and experiment with that - not depressed and needing to sit in a the corner and nurse a beer (how I felt).
Thanks again Donald. I can see I shall return to this theme again.
Appreciate it
Hi Mark. Congratulations on making it to day 15! Halfway, now. As they say, it's all downhill from here and I'm glad that you seem to be finding a future purpose and direction for your writing after this finishes (as opposed to this blog having an appointment with the gravedigger...).
ReplyDeleteYou got me thinking about markets. It seems to me that the definition you are holding in your mental space is a bit cynical. Which, I might point out, was matched by the first five definitions I got when I Googled the definition of a market. However, I kind of like this one from www.businessdictionary.com/definition/market.html
"An actual or nominal place where forces of demand and supply operate, and where buyers and sellers interact (directly or through intermediaries) to trade goods, services, or contracts or instruments, for money or barter."
It captures the fact that there is demand which must be met somehow. That demand is not only for learning, but for the things which support learning. The majority of things which support learning are not going to be new or innovative (This is the same in virtually all markets). Providers enter or leave a market for a variety of reasons and it is unfair to say that an entity exists in a market for purposes of exploitation. They can only exist in a market if there is a demand for their products. Yes, they are trying to make a profit - or at least break even. But that is true for anyone in the market, goods and service providers as well as teachers, administrators, and students.
I believe I have put myself in the position of trying to lecture you on economics. A situation that is inappropriate considering our respective backgrounds. I tremble when I think about what you will say to correct my errors Master. :-)
On the other hand, after spending several hours in GESS over the last two days, it made me depressed too. On the other hand I had some excellent conversations there and it was good to see you again my friend!
Thank you Dr. Slowbow, for your support, thoughts and insight. I do not disagree with you. As with Donald, that is almost a pity because we cannot then have a debate.
ReplyDeleteLiek you I had excellent conversations at GESS and like you, it depressed me. So can I ask you to reflect then on what it was that depressed you, given all that you have written about markets above?
I accept that not all are going to improvements to education, that there are just services required that have to be provided. I am not a member of the raving far left against all markets, far from it, that I why I linked to Sadler because I think he makes some very good points in what he says.
There are some things where the forces of supply and demand are not the best way to allocate resources and there are others where they are. Not everything needs to be a commercial business but somethings do need to be to be done well.
As to the blog ending up in the graveyard, that is not going to happen and I know on this one we agree less. I am sorry to repeat myself - but I would go on writing for me, only me, if no one read else read a word. Because this is now part of how I reflect and pull out ideas from my brain. That may not be in this minimum 500 words a day format. But I would continue to write even if blogger showed stats of zero readers.
Thank you again.
My short reflection on GESS (or any trade shows) making me depressed is similar to why academic conferences make me depressed. The majority of the activity that takes place at them could be accomplished in a much more efficient way. We spend a lot of money of this inefficiency. However, the part that doesn't make me depressed is the activity that is not part of the "package". Meeting people, talking to people, etc. The unquantifiable benefits on which we spend a lot of resources creating a fictitious quantifiable benefit to justify.
ReplyDeleteAgreed Dr. Slowbow.
ReplyDelete