Inculcate a wider culture of ambition - Access to education

THE phrase, attributed to the founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius Loyola, “give me the child for the first seven years and I will give you the man” points to the power of education and focussed early-life formation. 

Depending on your perspective such a prospect may, or may not, be a positive one. However, the opposite also stands, as many of those denied educational opportunities, or the cultural encouragement needed to exploit them, will confirm.

A child in an environment where education is not a priority, where it is not a driving, defining ambition of a family or a community, faces huge challenges if they are to make the best use of the opportunities offered by our schools and colleges. A new OECD report confirms this and reopens the age-old nature-or-nurture debate so beloved by educational psychologists and social reformers. The OECD, however, frames the consequences of indifference to, or limited access to, education in the starkest human and social terms.