Working with schools
EAMA is calling on the government to make a small but important change to boost STEM education in schools (also colleges, academies etc).
Ofsted currently gives no credit for extra-curricular STEM activities in its assessments of schools, which means they have little incentive to promote STEM.
We are urging a change in the rules, such that extra-curricular activity is counted positively in an Ofsted inspection. We believe that this would not only encourage schools but would draw a positive response from local engineering and manufacturing companies, investing time and resources to support school initiatives.
We are also urging that a fund be established to support investment in STEM by the schools. We are not asking for a funding allocation for companies.
We can see many reforms to the education and skills system in the UK that are needed to meet the technical and advanced engineering skills the economy needs for the future. Boosting extra-curricular STEM will be an important political and educational change that we believe is low-cost, achievable, and would have a far-reaching impact.
Please take a few moments to answer these three short questions. Your feedback will be of huge help, in confirming that we are right to be making the argument and in providing the evidence that is so important in getting government to change policy.
Questions:
- Were one or more schools in your area more interested in extra-curricular STEM, would you respond by investing time and money to support them?
- If you already support schools, do you think you would increase that support?
- Please provide any other relevant comments or information, for example about your current relationship with schools.
Your responses will be treated in confidence. They will be aggregated and used to inform and support our representations to government.