Why is it still surprising news to academia and the commentariat that government (of any flavour) is largely ineffective, in the short term, in changing people’s attitudes to life and community?

THE impact of government policy in reducing poverty in Wales in the past 12 years has been “at best marginal”, a leading anti-poverty adviser has claimed.

In an essay entitled Still Living on the Edge? published in the University of Wales Press academic series Contemporary Wales, Prof Dave Adamson, who helped shape the Welsh Assembly Government’s Communities First initiative, claims:

There has been little change in poverty levels in many communities since 1996;

Source: Martin Shipman, Western Mail

Obviously, governments can change people’s physical lives relatively quickly by sending them to war or changing their work/living environment but it is still educational opportunity over generations that is the main driver of community and attitude change and, of course, governments should be to blame for any failure in this provision.

Prof Adamson says: “This educational failure is the foundation of poverty in Wales and relegates a significant proportion of the population to labour market failure and consequent patterns of low income, unemployment and benefit dependency.

This suggests that Academia itself should also share some blame as there is no doubt that there are some very poor quality, mis-trained and demotivated teachers and jobsworthies out there in our schools. This is not wholly the fault of government policy but the fault of academia in not inculcating a sense of worth and societal value in a vocation that will always be underpaid but shouldn’t be and isn’t unappreciated. That said, the setting of ludicrous targets  by government or interfering in how schools manage themselves does not help either. Continue reading »