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This Government of course has as its core objective, the creation of an opportunity society. That is what has underpinned policies from the creation of the minimum wage to the primacy accorded to education. It is an agenda that continues to gather pace.
Rt Hon Alan Milburn MP
NET Fourth Annual Lecture: 9 March 2010
 Social mobility has become the new holy grail of public policy.
Spurred by intractable levels of social inequality and, until recently at least, a flat lining in social mobility politicians from across the political spectrum have pinned their colours to the meritocratic mast.
It is a development I regard as most welcome.
We are all - or at least claim to be - progressives now.
Read the transcript here
As Director of Liberty Ms Chakrabarti explored issues around community cohesion, under the title: Human rights as the ties that bind.
Director of Liberty Ms Chakrabarti
NET Third Annual Lecture: 26 March 2009
 Teachers should ignore parts of the national curriculum and stick to teaching pupils their basic human rights, according to Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty, writes William Stewart.
The campaigner, who gave the annual National Education Trust Third Annual Lecture was concerned that the emphasis in the citizenship curriculum on teaching pupils about their "rights and responsibilities" sent the wrong message.
"I've no problem with people being told they've got responsibilities," she said. "But our fundamental human rights are not contingent on how we perform our responsibilities.
"When you structure it in those terms, it can quickly look like these are rights for good people. But they are not - they are inalienable rights that can never be taken away, no matter what you have done."
Read the transcript here
Estelle Morris asks "Schools: Does anyone really know what we’re doing?"
Estelle Morris, Baroness Morris of Yardley
2nd Annual Lecture: 4 March 2008
 "Despite improvements in overall school standards, the gap between the highest and lowest achievers has barely changed," former Education Secretary Estelle Morris asks in her National Education Trust lecture (Tuesday 4th March).
Baroness Morris of Yardley says that this gap is a cause for concern both for politicians and educationists. She also expresses her fear that: "...there is a risk that we thrash around from one initiative to another without asking ourselves some key questions: Are we using the right levers? Is the relationship between politicians and educationists as it should be? Why do others do so much better than us?" The former Education Secretary tells her audience that it is essential that we, as a society, get the answers to these questions right, if we are to move forward into the next stage of educational reform.
Click to read the full detail of this media release ...
Held at the Mercers' Hall, London
Media reaction to the NET 2nd annual lecture
Summary of 2nd Annual Lecture
David Bell Permenant Secretary DCSF
First Annual Lecture: 27 February 2007
Read 'A Comprehensive Education'
NET's Launch 'Personal Wishes' by NET's Leading Thinkers
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