Missing the point about the Learning and Skills Council, a comment on Coffield

In JEP 15 (2), Frank Coffield welcomed the Learning to Succeed White Paper now passing into legislation as the Learning and Skills Act for implementation in April 2001 as `radical, structural reform' but argued that the government is `failing to recognize the potential of lifelong learning as a major lever on such change'. This misses the point of the new legislation on two grounds. One, not all post-16 learning is included within this provision for `life-long learning' since higher education is specifically excluded. Two, the far-reaching structural reforms provide a template for the future administration of all non-higher education in which, elected local educational authorities is finally subordinated to the new local Learning and Skills Councils intermediate between schools, colleges and training agents and the National Learning and Skills Council. Far from a new enlightenment, this is an instance of the New Leviathan predicted by Glennerster et al. in 1991.