Speeches
From dictatorship to democracy: the implications for higher education
Tripoli, Libya.
9 May 2012
The new Libya needs higher education to adhere to principles such as entry on merit, financial support for poorer students, and governance that ensures academic freedom.
“Education in future needs to provide people with knowledge, the ability to think in a variety of ways and the capacity to influence others which I call leadership.”
The prospects for global education reform
College of Teachers
London, UK.
18 May 2010
Great school systems increasingly set globally benchmarked standards, generate really good data on how individual schools and children are doing, and make sure that every child is always on the agenda.
“We are beginning to know what we need to do to reform education systems successfully. Now the challenge is to actually go about doing it. And the question for us is do we have the courage, the persistence and the ambition?”
Education and the causes of war
The Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences.
12 December 2009.
Education can contribute to world peace.
“For this, though, we need a deeper education which develops thought as well as knowledge, character as well as intellect, dialogue as well as reflection, humility as well as leadership and, above all, which has a basis in the ethics on which our futures depend.”
Impossible and necessary: Are you ready for this?
The Association of School and College Leaders Birmingham, UK.
14 March 2009.
Improving school systems requires inspired school leadership, talented and well-trained teachers, and well-crafted plans to eliminate achievement gaps.
“As the knowledge of how to create successful systems accumulates, starting now, we have to do better, much better.”
Neither rest nor tranquility: Education and the American dream in the 21st century
Aspen Institute, Washington D.C.
15 September 2008
The decline in U.S. performance in international tests stems not from a lack of investment but a lack of “productivity” on that investment. That’s due in part to an unequal distribution of that investment, favouring wealthy communities, and too much of the money going to administration rather than teaching.
“Successful education reform is as much about means as it is about ends. Getting the policy right is difficult to be sure; but it is relatively easy compared to making it happen, consistently and effectively so that the benefits are felt in every classroom. Policy failure is as often a failure of implementation as it is of concept.”
The challenge of transformation
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
June 2002
What has worked in improving education in England is an underpinning framework for continuous improvement. But progress is held back by spotty attendance, high dropout rates and vocational education not up to standards elsewhere.
“In the long run, the capacity to bring about rapid, continuous, large-scale education reform, and therefore raise standards of student performance to unprecedented levels, is fundamental to all our social and economic prospects.”