What is the purpose of education?  The question is rarely asked as school funding dominates the debate along with the ever repeated lament about falling standards as measured by national and international science, mathematics and literacy tests.

And on the rare occasion the topic is raised it usually involves meaningless clichés and empty rhetoric about ‘21st century skills’, ‘life-long learning’, ‘collaborative, negotiated, goal-setting’ and making science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) a priority.