Another script about education - one of my obsessions (as you have probably gathered by now), a subject that I feel goes to the very heart of what we are as a society. And when Tony Blair made his 'education, education, education' speech, I think we all actually expected something different. Well, we may well have something different, but I'm not sure that it is anything like what we were expecting. The things we thought would change (like league tables and endless exams) are still there, and what we didn't expect (like privatisation and education for, and in partnership with, business) has snuck up on us. Mark my words, it will all end in tears. 

So, the academic rights and expectations of the socially disadvantaged are again being discussed in high places by those who are in a position to decide on the parameters of what is socially desirable, and who are at the same time empowered to impose their views on society as to who is the “right stuff” for the system, “one of us”.

Yesterday, the National Association of Head Teachers wrestled with the Government over who is fit to be educated in their schools, and who decides who should be excluded.

Of course, schoolchildren are not University students, given the right to refuse education with no more punishment than reduced employment prospects. We think children’s education is so good for them we enforce attendance by law. It’s good for them, whether they think it is or not.

And do we talk of how to encourage kids to attend, making our schools more inclusive for theirs and society’s good, or just of how to ‘deal with’ those who disrupt the system? It’s the old problem of individual motivation in a context of social discipline, imposing punishment or guiding to self-restraint.

When the Prophet said the search for knowledge is a sacred duty, that duty is one before God, not imposed by my fellow man. Qur’an says that “of the servants of God, it is those who have knowledge that will be in awe of Him”. And that awe of God may or may not be a product of our current perception of the purpose of education.

Learn what you may in the way of facts, they will all too soon be superseded by history and the coming of a bright new theory. But find a way to give a child self-esteem, self-control, and a feeling of inclusion, especially if that child is more at home with violent responses, and society at large will benefit from the lesson.

To see the way we educate our young is to learn what it is that we as a society feel we need. So, as members of the Northern Ireland executive sit down together again this week let us hope they set our children an example, and give all of us an education in the principles of inclusion and voluntary self-restraint.