McQueen and his co-writer Alastair Siddons focus for the first time on someone who is not an adult. 12-year-old Kingsley Smith (Kenyah Sandy) is fascinated by the stars and, like many kids his age, has aspirations of becoming an astronaut. “Education” begins with him in the Planetarium, observing the show while an enormous smile breaks across his face. Science fascinates him, but in class, Kingsley has difficulty reading. His teachers brutally yell at him, either for struggling in class or horsing around like a typical 12-year-old kid. His infractions are treated more harshly than other students, culminating in a meeting between his mother Agnes (Sharlene Whyte) and the school headmaster (Adrian Rawlins).
Agnes works two jobs, including a nursing gig, to help put a roof over her and her children’s heads. Her husband Esmond (Daniel Francis) works as a carpenter. The headmaster doesn’t know anything about Agnes’ life or skillset, yet he treats her condescendingly as he explains that Kingsley is being sent to a “special school” because he’s disruptive and his I.Q. scores are below average. This new school, Durrants, is so far away that a bus will shepherd Kingsley and other students back and forth every morning. “I am the messenger of good news,” the headmaster reassures Agnes. It will not be the last lie he tells her.
“Nothing but a heap of trouble!” is how Kingsley is described by his mother. His older sister, Stephanie (Tamara Lawrance) has more time and patience for him. It is she who first becomes suspicious when she reads the pamphlet describing Durrants. Kingsley is more attuned to what’s happening than anyone else in his family. “They’re sending me to a stupid school,” he says. It’s worse than that. Durrants’ description of its students says it all: these kids are “educationally subnormal.” The teachers don’t care, that is, if they show up for class. Nothing is taught and, after graduation, the stigma of having attended one of these institutions marks you for life as someone who can only do the most menial of jobs and live in the poorest housing.
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