Is efficiency the enemy of humanity in schools?

My fondest school memories are of my final year at middle school. It just so happens that it was also the first year my education was directed under the National Curriculum, but as I recall it, that largely consisted of my teacher stapling grids to various bits of my work and ticking boxes – an idea that was soon to catch on in earnest!

As with most such tales, the things that made Year 7 my most enjoyable year were not the new attainment targets or the exciting topics we studied. Rather, my recollections are of friendships and blossoming romances; the thrill of being made a house captain; and for some reason, the hours spent rehearsing a (dreadful) play we’d written about healthy eating. Our group was allowed to practice in the nearby resources room, which was about as focused as you’d expect!

While the year was certainly enjoyable, and definitely in some forms educational, you certainly couldn’t argue that it was efficient. I’m sure our time could have been used more effectively. We could have spent less time on rehearsing our play or making paper chains that Christmas, and more on the focuses hidden in the depths of those many National Curriculum files. And arguably, my education would have been the better for it.

Let me look elsewhere for a moment. My in-laws both worked in administrative roles in the 60s and 70s. They both talk about working in offices where time was more relaxed than might be the norm now. People stopped for tea breaks – often served by the itinerant tea lady – and the pace of deadlines and workloads was more placid. Social events were seen as an important part of the employer’s role, and staff were encouraged to enjoy themselves.

No doubt, you could argue that it wasn’t efficient. Indeed, perhaps as other companies became more efficient, theirs changed their ways and now no longer operate in that way. Or perhaps those that clung on to the old, sociable, ways have long since gone bust. Perhaps now all companies are more efficient, and add more to the country’s GDP. But I’m not convinced people are exclusively better off as a result.

The more I think about it, the more it strikes me that the drive for efficiency can so often lead to a loss of humanity. Not in the grandest sense, but in the small edges that make things more human. How many teachers no longer have time to get to the staffroom at breaktimes, and lose an opportunity to be with other humans? How many employees – particularly in these hybrid working days – no longer have opportunities to share experiences or socialise with their colleagues, and so have slightly poorer human interactions? How many of our children might benefit from some time spent in the resources room, rehearsing a not-very-good play as an opportunity to enjoy some human connection with peers?

Increasingly, education seems to focus on efficiency. And some of that absolutely makes sense. I’m not a fan of a biscuit Stonehenge or a questionable Greek day with togas made of bath sheets. But equally, I do miss some of the mischief that used to be commonplace in primary schools. I do wonder if we haven’t lost some of the social connection that used to make work and school life more enjoyable.

A case in point is the focus on removing all interruptions to lessons. I absolutely see the point that every disruption sets learning back, but what if there are other advantages? What if those distractions and hiatuses (is that the plural?) also sometimes bring some welcome respite; a chance to refresh; a chance to socialise?

As a headteacher, my day is often interrupted – perhaps more often than not. It makes my working pattern less efficient, but if those interruptions are pupils coming to share their achievements then to my mind they are welcome. Yes, it can set me back; I might lose my focus – but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Of course, the current climate means that any interruption or inefficiency in schooling could be argued to be a point lost on the charge towards Primary Progress scores or Attainment 8 outcomes, just as the expense of the visiting tea-lady was probably a drain on company dividends for shareholders… but what if in making everything more efficient, we also strip away some of the humanity?

That’s not to say that efficient and effective schools are inhuman; nor that academic progress is not important. Nor is it an argument for a free-for-all.

The classes with which I have had the most “fun” have been this with excellent standards of behaviour and a good work ethic: they have the ability to go off task, enjoy the moment, and get back to things in a way that poorer standards of behaviour don’t allow.

But just as I suspect that the drive for profits and business efficiencies might have made the average person’s working life just a little less enjoyable, so I wonder if sometimes we might not want to tip the balance back the other way a little in schools.

Tagged: primary