The greatest failing of Britain’s schools is to teach children to read, write and count, but not to speak. They teach what technology can increasingly do for them, but not what it cannot. A regular complaint of today’s employers is that applicants for jobs lack social skills or work ethic.

Pupils are rarely taught how to present themselves, handle arguments or form human relationships. The most basic requirements for entering adulthood are ignored. The one task to which teaching is almost exclusively dedicated – examination – is an activity conducted in total silence. No grown-up job involves answering exam questions. Education only in the “three Rs” is akin to where medicine was in the days of bleeding and leeches.

The teaching of oracy, or the use of speech, was launched about 10 years ago by progressive educationists in an attempt to make schooling more relevant. A few charities have promoted it, such as Voice 21 and Impetus, and a few schools promised to teach it. Then, in 2024, came an independent commission on oracy, chaired by Geoff Barton of the Association of School and College Leaders. It reported that the revolution was overdue. Although the national curriculum for England includes the teaching of spoken language as part of English programmes, it is rarely emphasised or made prominent. Speaking ability, group working and class debating should have the same status as reading, literacy and numeracy. Oracy should be........

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