Corporate Communication Strategy for Education in the United Kingdom - Essay Example

PR and Corporate Communication Strategy for Education in the United Kingdom The education sector has continued to contribute immensely to the economy of the countries in the world. Quality education that is focussed on solving societal issues is paramount in any society. There are countries that are doing better in terms of the quality of education than others. The developed nations have been ranked highly in terms of the quality and effectiveness of education, while the developing countries lag behind. According to the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the United Kingdom demonstrates average results. PISA focuses on the efficiency, quality, and equity in education. There are various lines of thoughts that can be induced from this performance based on the views by the stakeholders. The communication of such information to the public and the perception of stakeholders have various implications on PISA, such as brand building, perception of the product, value of the program, trust and awareness of the program (Gehrt, Moffitt & Carlos 2010). This essay will focus on three frames that have been brought forward by education stakeholders in the UK. These are, first, the PISA results are contributed by the outstanding performance of UK in history. Secondly, the performance is viewed as dismal because of the continued average performance. Finally, the results are viewed as wrong and do not represent the actual state of education in the UK. Before addressing these frames, let us look at the objectives of this PR and corporate communication strategy. This PR and corporate communication strategy endeavours to facilitate the communication of information relating to the performance of United Kingdom in the global education quality ranking. The stakeholders in education have mixed reactions to such performance. The mode in which this information is communicated influences the response by these stakeholders. Therefore, a focus will be given to the opinions raised by the stakeholders. In particular, it shall focus on the influence of history on the current performance. Secondly, it will try to bring out results as a low stoop for the United Kingdom and lastly, it shall look at the results as flawed and does not represent the state off education in UK. The strategy also endeavours that information is passed to the audience in a clear and unbiased way. In addition, it will facilitate the incorporation of the concerns of stakeholders in the education sector such as the government, parents, students, and educators among others. Next, the role of the stakeholders has been put into perspective. The 2012 PISA results have aroused a big debate from various stakeholders in the educational sector. Chief among these are the politicians. The Conservative government through its Education Secretary, Michael Gove accepted the declining performance but was quick to distance his government from the results. He noted that the results were a product of the Labour government’s efforts between 2000 and 2009. He was swift to point at the reforms being implemented by the Conservative government, and promised that in the next PISA results, the fruits will be evident (Adams 2013, pg. 1). On the other hand, the opposition refused to bear the blame citing the failure of the current government. These political gimmicks characterize the approach that has been taken by the government and the opposition in addressing these results. In essence, none of their opinions attempts to put a perspective on how to focus on the areas that requires improvement. Actually, they do not seem to understand what ails education in UK. We shall then look at the role of educators on corporate communication and PR. The educators also have their say on the performance. Barton (2013, pg. 1) views that the results should not be the main bone of contention, however, they should serve as a roadmap to the realization of the what matters- “raising aspirations and developing better teachers”. The results should be acceptable so that they may prove to the UK that they are not yet there, much more needs to be done. The policy that the politicians keep on talking about may or may not be the ultimate solution to the education system. By all means redundancy should be eliminated, the students and the teachers should be more inspired to deliver quality results. The results should be a demonstration that United Kingdom has more effort to put. Shanghai that is ranked among the best performers has been sending teachers to the UK to come and see how learning occurs in the UK setup (Barton 2013). These individuals have greatly admired the standards of education and applauded the UK students for their creativity. This may indicate that the UK has not lost; the opportunity to reclaim its glory is there. Next, the role of researchers has been elucidated. Researchers have faulted the system that is used by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in PISA. The compilation methods have been questioned for having flaws that could result to a country being ranked in a wide range of positions. The main consumers of the PISA results are the politicians who get a chance to brag about the policies that they have been able to develop. The reliability of the results has been cast doubt about. There is an acknowledgement by OECD that there can be variation in the ranking (Stewart 2013, pg.1). In addition, academicians have also faulted the system that is used in the ranking and pointed a number of loopholes that presents unreliability in the findings. There is an argument that the test questions, which varies across students and countries influences the performance of a country. Their formula of calculating has also been said to have a conceptual error (Stewart 2013). Having considered the role of the stakeholders in PR and corporate communication, we shall go ahead to address each of the frames that are considered by the stakeholders. The view by educators is that UK has slipped relative to the performance of other countries. In 2012, they ranked position 23, which was a slight improvement from position 25 that they had held in the previous ranking. However, the overall results indicate that the United Kingdom went down in all of its subjects since the 2006 ranking. During 2006 ranking, they had taken positions 14 in science, 17 in reading and 24 in mathematics. Science demonstrated a great drop by taking position 21 in the 2012 ranking from the 16th place that they held in 2010 (Coughlan 2013, pg. 1). These positions reveal that there is some flaws in the education system and should be addressed. The educators have disregarded the views by politicians that the performance is based on the policies that they have been able to advance in the course of their regimes. An address by the stakeholders of the performance of UK based on their historical performance is the first perspective that is considered here. There is a view that the historical performance of United Kingdom is the major contributor of the ranking. It might be argued that United Kingdom has been known to have good educational systems in which other countries have tried to emulate over the years (Garner 2013). The educators interpret this to mean several things. It may mean that the systems have been complacent or the changes that have occurred affect the quality of education in a negative way. In addition, globalization, technology, and the rise of various centres of power such as China can be a contributor to the competitiveness in provision of quality of education across the world. The educators may have the view that things have changed and the past cannot be relied upon to determine performance. Policy makers who endeavour to develop new policies may argue the same case. Lifestyle changes can also play a role in the state of affairs in a country hence influencing the education standards. Several teachers observe that the parents in UK have better quality education as opposed to their children. This may demonstrate the impact of deterioration of standards of education with time as a result of changing lifestyles. This also adds to the view that the quality of education that the parent have is higher as compared to that of their kids. It is apparent that UK leads among the countries that provide more extracurricular activities for the students; this can contribute to negative performance if it is overdone. The current situation can be a contribution of this factor. The view that UK has outperformed other countries in the past can be what is ailing the system. Most of the education standards have had their origin in UK. Many countries including China strolled in UK to get a grasp of how their education system is like (Barton 2013). In many situations, they applaud the system and go ahead to implement. It is likely that UK has become complacent and lacks the capacity to benchmark while other countries are borrowing a leaf from what has been achieved in the country in terms of the educational systems. The traditional systems in UK that have worked have been adopted and modified to fit a modern study setup. The increased body of research also provides a competitive edge that is likely to phase out old ways of doing things very easily. The historical political play is also a likely contributor of the dwindling standards of education in UK. There is a lot of blame game between the Conservative Party and the Labour party on who should bear the responsibility. During the campaigns, politicians such as David Laws convinced the citizens that education would have a commission once they get to power, and hence they would give a new curriculum a moratorium of ten years (Barton 2013). This has not come to be achieved. To remove the blame on himself and his government, Education secretary Michael Gove said that there has been a decline or stagnating of education standards since 1990s. In addition, he tries to defend his government by mentioning that the fruits of their policies will be visible years later. These political games have made the UK education to lack a specific focus. No one wants to accept the responsibility and make a decision to strengthen the institutions. Education policies are prone to political interferences; this makes it possible not to achieve the intended good of the general populace. However, despite the political games, UK outstands in reducing the socio-economic disparities in education as compared to other countries in the world. The historical situation in the UK can be addressed through mass media such as newspapers and radio. In addition, use of online platforms such as the government websites and PISA website is also an option. The second frame addressed is that UK education system has continued to have dismal performance. The United Kingdom education system can be demonstrated to have hit below standards. Various stakeholders such as parents, teachers, politicians, government and non-governmental organizations accept the view that the standards of education have continued to decline. The question that arises is that, is it that other countries are doing more or is it UK that has become poor. The truth cannot be far from these two options. Barton (2013) points out that the standards of teaching needs to be improved if UK is to compete with other leaders globally. The view that the country is doing badly can be a source of more troubles or a point of improvement is worked on, so that the situation is changed. The policy makers have relied on the view that view that the country is performing below average to come up with policies that are more educational. The decline in the ranking is an wakening call for curriculum change or a change in education policies just like it is being witnessed in other parts of the world where their institution s are doing better. However, it is possible to dispute the dismal performance on various grounds. There have been claims that the method used by OECD in coming up with the ranking is flawed. There is also an argument that the tests that are given to the students do not have universality. These are just but excuses that are used by interest groups to disregard OECD’s findings. The view that a country such as China, which mainly uses their principle towns such as Shanghai for the reports, is not representative. This is because the majority of the poor populations that live in the rural areas have limited access to quality education. This means that UK can possibly rank better if China is considered as it is. To improve the UK education system in order to prevent the dismal performance more changes are required to be implemented. The policy development is the first step coupled with stringent implementation of the developed policies. However, the mention of policies in UK has been a strategy by the politicians to attract the attention of the media. The best thing would be development of structures that facilitate high aspirations by children while still young. On the other hand, more is required on the teacher’s side. They should be capable of people that enjoy the profession and are motivated to impact the lives of their students and nurture them in a good way. The dismal performance in the PISA results is an indicator that the UK education requires a game change. For quite some time the results have not been good for UK. The political gimmick of finger pointing or mention that they are developing policies that do not work cannot be the ultimate solution for the dismal performance. Talented teachers should be capable of finding their way into the classrooms to impact on the students. The working environment of the teachers including their remuneration and the workload should also be factors of consideration. Quality and performance is a product of quality personnel. The mainstream media, including radio, television and newspapers, should categorically address the dismal performance in UK. In addition, use of online platforms that have high traffic especially targeting teachers, parents and policy makers. Such include the website for the ministry of education. The last frame is that some of the stakeholders view the results as utterly wrong. The researchers feel that the results by OECD on the status of education in UK are wrong. Various parameters linked to the study can be faulted. This is based on mode in which the results were obtained. There is a variability of culture in the various countries that were ranked. There is an extraordinarily high culture of parental aspiration in China as opposed to UK (Barton 2013). This variability can be the result of the disparity that was witnessed. The need to achieve more than their parents is entrenched in the Chinese culture as opposed to the situation in UK where there is some level of complacency. The PISA results are not any perfect. OECD acknowledges this fact and states that ranking the countries in terms of their educational systems is a daunting task that is prone to errors (Schleicher 2013, pg.1; Spiegelalter 2013). However, as pointed out by Gehrt, Moffitt & Carlos (2010) in their sixth PR principle, a compelling story is vital. They have come up with a system that is somehow convincing and they can argue their case well. The techniques that are used to compile the findings that rank the countries are erroneous. PISA is extensively used by policy makers to establish the interventions that should be made. These policy makers, mostly politicians rely on this information so as to advance their political games. However, a careful look at the basics of techniques that brings forth the result, there are several loopholes. Professor Svend of the University of Copenhagen challenges the model saying that it lacks credibility since it shows results that are highly variable (Stewart 2013). The variation in the questions that are asked to various students presents errors since there is no common ground that all the students are assessed from. In addition, despite using different questions, they use the Rasch model to assess all the students. The findings are also in that they do not represent the long-term implications of the education that is provided to the student. If the study assessed the same group of individuals after time intervals, the impact of their education can be analysed to establish whether they have been able to grasp and use what they learnt in school. It can also to say that the education approach that is developed by a given country may vary hence posing a disadvantage or advantage to the country. For example, some countries may encourage learning aspects such as cramming, which retains most of the content to the students. On the other hand, other countries may have an orientation towards application. This variation can result to the development of differences in the scores. The results are based on varying population sizes, which may present differences. In China the findings are obtained based on the city schools. This is completely different with Britain, which a big population and all the rural and urban schools are considered equally. These disparities create a situation, which can lead to biased results that are not representative. A sample of any given urban area will definitely demonstrate high educational standards as opposed to the rural areas. In addition, the schools and the students that are sampled play a critical role in the overall performance of a given country. The concerns of faulty results can be effectively addressed through writing mails to PISA with complain. Alternatively, the issue can be addressed online through the OECD website. Through seminars and conferences organized by OECD on education standards, the concerns can also be aired. In conclusion, various can be used to communicate to the stakeholders because of their varied perspectives. The PISA results can be used to demonstrate various perspectives that the stakeholders can view them. There is the perception that PISA results are true based on historic experiences. Another view is that the results are dismal due to the continued average performance. Finally, we have the view that the results do not represent the true picture as it is; this is because they have a number of flaws. Whichever the take that the stakeholders embrace, it is influenced by the public relations and communication strategy. References Adams, R. (2013), Michael Gove blames Labour for International league table performance. retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/dec/01/michael-gove-labour-international-league-table Barton, G. (2013), Forget PISA results, lets concentrate on what really matters. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2013/dec/03/pisa-results-schools-policy-better-teachers Coughlan, S. (2013), PISA tests: UK stagnates as Shanghai tops league table. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/education-25187997 Garner, R. (2013), Richard Garner: PISA test results are a disappointment but we should look to the future. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/richard-garner-pisa-test-results-are-a-disappointment-but-we-should-look-to-the-future-8981015.html Gehrt, J., Moffitt, C. & Carlos, A. (2010), Strategic public relations: 10 principles to harness the power of PR. Xlibris. OECD (2013), Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA): results from PISA 2012. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/unitedkingdom/PISA-2012-results-UK.pdf Sahlberg, P. (2013), The PISA 2012scores show the failure of ‘Market based’ education reform, The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/08/pisa-education-test-scores-meaning Schleicher, A. (2013), what we learn from the PISA 2012 results. Retrieved from http://oecdeducationtoday.blogspot.com/2013/12/what-we-learn-from-pisa-2012-results.html Spiegelalter, D. (2013), The problems with PISA statistical methods, Royal Statistical Society. Retrieved from http://www.statslife.org.uk/opinion/1074-the-problems-with-pisa-statistical-methods Stewart, W. (2013), PISA rankings are ‘utterly wrong’. Retrieved from http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6343921 The Telegraph (2013),The OECD education report: Subject results in Full. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/leaguetables/10488555/OECD-education-report-subject-results-in-full.html Read More