“It’s kind of weird we haven’t taken this more seriously.”

Alastair Campbell is baffled. The former Labour press secretary and official spokesperson for Tony Blair (and oft-described “spin doctor”) is, aptly enough, talking to Tes about oracy - or rather, bemoaning its lack of focus within education given its importance in everyday life.

“The single most important means by which we express ourselves, literally every day of our lives, is through speaking,” he says.

“We don’t all go through life having to speak French or having to do algebra - we might, but we don’t all have to. But we do all have to go through life speaking and communicating.”

Play the private schools at their own game

Yet, he notes that while literacy and numeracy have long been part of early childhood education, the notion of actively teaching speaking and communication skills is mostly left to private schools, where this is so engrained it is almost taken for granted.

“If you go to Eton, they’ve got a multi-million-pound debating chamber. Boris Johnson learned oracy, David Cameron learned oracy, Rishi Sunak learned oracy. They’re taught to debate.”

That might explain, in part, why Eton has had three times more prime ministers than the entire Labour Party, Campbell suggests.

He says he recognises that in many state schools, there will be a lack of time to focus on these areas, especially when there hasn’t been any direct government direction to actively teach oracy.

“I get how much pressure there is via the curriculum, I get how much pressure is via exams and Ofsted breathing down their neck,” he says.

However, he says he wonders, too, if sometimes because the idea of public speaking and debating is seen so strongly as the preserve of private schools that there is a reluctance from some state schools to do anything similar.

“I think that because private schools have taken this seriously, there’s almost an inverted snobbery against it: ‘That’s what the private schools do, we don’t do that’,” he says. “But, actually, I think it’s one of the few things we probably should take from private schools.”

He says this would not only give more young people the confidence that they could enter the world of politics and have their voice heard, but it would also give all pupils skills vital for later life - from job interviews to forming relationships.

“This idea of communicating, debating, arguing, citizenship, contribution to public life - call it what you want, it’s essentially about how do we teach kids to communicate better, to argue better, to disagree agreeably and to understand the power of language,” he says.

For teachers thinking this just sounds like another major area of assessment or accountability, Campbell says he does not believe this would be necessary but would be about simply ensuring all schools had an understanding of the importance of teaching in this area, something many do already.

He says: “I don’t think you need to change the curriculum that much [and] I’m not talking about exams, I’m just talking about having an understanding [of oracy]. I think good schools do it already in different ways.”

A political talking point

This is why he believes Labour should promote a focus on oracy as a policy pledge in its manifesto for next year’s election - not least because it would not require money it doesn’t have in the same way Labour did in the “education, education, education” era that Campbell was at the heart of.

“If you go back to the 1997 election, we were campaigning a lot on education: the schools were falling to bits, teacher morale was very, very low, but we had the ability to say it’s going to be a priority,” he says.

“If Keir Starmer becomes prime minister and Bridget Phillipson education secretary, it’s going to be tougher to play that because the economy is going to be in a pretty bad way. So you need policy ideas that differentiate that aren’t just about money.”

He accepts that “inevitably, there’ll be a cost” but it would not be huge and would chime with voters: “I think literacy, numeracy and oracy actually go quite well together.”

As part of trying to get this message heard, Campbell explains he is leaning on past connections to get this message to Starmer - chiefly through his connection to Peter Hyman, who was a former speechwriter for Blair and is now a senior adviser to Starmer.

He says: “I keep saying to him, get this thing in the manifesto…make oracy become part of schooling.”

There’s every chance Hyman will listen - not least because he has built a reputation in education for a focus on oracy, first through School 21 in Stratford, East London, and then the wider Voice 21 collective of schools that put oracy at the heart of everything they do.

Rising up the agenda

He’s not the only one pushing this message either, with Lord Blunkett’s 137-page learning and skills report last year urging an improved focus on oracy to help give students the “basic and essential skills needed” for success in education and work.

“This begins with ensuring that every young person has the ability to read, write and express themselves clearly, and is numerate as well as literate. This includes the spoken word, or ‘oracy’, and vocabulary to be able to communicate effectively,” the report states on page 33.

What’s more, educational research suggests making oracy a more explicit core skill, given the same priority as numeracy or literacy, would reap dividends.

For example, Neil Mercer, emeritus professor of education at the University of Cambridge and director of the study centre Oracy@Cambridge, has spoken to Tes before about the impact oracy can have on pupil outcomes and numerous studies that have demonstrated this and proved its value.

“I’m certainly not worried about any contradictory evidence appearing,” he told Tes in 2019.

Campbell has met and spoken with Professor Mercer about oracy and cites both him and Hyman - as well as numerous teachers that he’s met during visits to schools - as strengthening his belief that it should be a political talking point and one he intends to use his platform to raise.

“Having had time to talk to Peter Hyman, having talked to Neil Mercer, having seen what Voice 21 are doing, and having seen the enthusiasm from teachers who are operating this in schools...I do think getting this into the manifesto of one of the major parties as part of a pretty straightforward reform that can be made without massive structural change is something I will keep arguing for.”

So, if the Conservatives made this a tenet of their election campaign on education, he’d back it, too?

“Yeah - but that’s why Labour should get on and do it.”

Alastair Campbell’s new book, But What Can I Do?: Why Politics Has Gone So Wrong, and How You Can Help Fix, is available now