Back in September last year, Labour leader Keir Starmer unveiled his party’s flagship education policy: a drive for oracy, or public speaking, to be at the centre of the national curriculum.
As Starmer said at the time, his government would put confident speaking ‘at the heart of’ teaching in schools, with these skills potentially making the difference between young people getting and not getting a job later on in life.
It was clear at the time that the main driver of the policy was Starmer himself, who was apparently keen to smash the ‘class ceiling’.
Is his oracy hobby horse now being stabled though? Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson spoke to The Spectator’s Katy Balls at a live recording of the Women with Balls podcast at conference today. Asked about the oracy policy, Phillipson appeared more equivocal about its implementation, saying:
Where it comes to oracy, none of that is standalone but how we embed that into the work of schools, and that’s what we’ve asked the [national curriculum] review panel to consider.
It seems the long grass beckons for Starmer’s public speaking push.
Elsewhere in the event, Phillipson was asked about the Labour government’s controversial decision to halt the free speech Bill for universities. She explained that it was right to ‘pause and reflect’ after minority students, and in particular Jewish groups, had voiced their concerns about Holocaust denial and hate speech being enabled by the Bill on campus.
But she suggested that the government was still interested in the legislation, saying:
What happens now, is that I do want to hear from a range of voices on this. Free speech in our universities is incredibly important. Young people should be exposed to a range of opinions, including opinions that they might not agree with…
I want to hear from a range of voices and we’re engaging with people who have different views on this topic, to make sure we get this right.
Asked about female academics such as Kathleen Stock, who was hounded from her university position over her views on trans rights, Phillipson said she was concerned about this and committed to hearing from these academics when it came to the Bill:
Of course I’m concerned. And I do believe that academics should be able to express a range of opinions…
I want to hear from those voices as part of the discussions we’re having now about how best to take this forward. Absolutely, their voices must be heard.
We can only hope…
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