Commodifying Education with Michael Gove
Education Log
Latest Reports
Has David Cameron been reading Ivan Illich?
How to reintroduce selection without anyone realising
The problem with the 11-Plus was that it consigned roughly 80 per cent of children to a second-rate education, whilst offering the 'top' 20 per cent an
academic curriculum preparatory to attending a 'Russell Group' university.
The comprehensive system never sat easily with the Tories essentially hierarchical view of society - 'God bless the squire and his relations' - as it had about
it the whiff of 'socialist' levelling-down, and in any case state-school teachers were - in the eyes of Margaret Thatcher - typical of those who made a noise
at the NUT's Easter conference: Marxist.
Michael Gove's solution to the problem has been to bang on about Sweden - a social democracy - to provide a cover for what is essentially an experiment drawn from the US charter school movement:
Shortly after landing at Malcolm X Shabazz High School as a Teach for America recruit, Dominique D. Lee grew disgusted with a system that produced ninth graders who could not name the seven continents or the governor of their state.In a New Role, Teachers Move to Run Schools
He started wondering: What if I were in charge?
Three years later, Mr. Lee, at just 25, is getting a chance to find out.
Today, Mr. Lee and five other teachers — all veterans of Teach for America, a corps of college graduates who undergo five weeks of training and make a two-year commitment to teaching — are running a public school here with 650 children from kindergarten through eighth grade ...
NYT 06 Sept 2010Teach for America
And lo! Gove's Bible project did run into a spot of bother
In the interests of balance, Gove should send an accompanying copy of Margaret Thatcher's 'Sermon on the Mound'
... Whitehall sources said Gove was told at the highest levels that it would be wrong to spend nearly £400,000 on the project at a time when the government was in negotiations with teaching unions over cuts to their pension entitlement.
Education department officials insisted the bibles would be distributed before Easter even if no sponsor had been found.
A senior education department source said enough public cash was available to press ahead and No 10 had merely indicated that "sponsorship was desirable".
A Department for Education official said in a statement:
"The prime minister was clear in his speech in December about the importance of the King James Bible, and marking this important anniversary.
"The prime minister supports the plan to send a copy to every school. We continue to seek philanthropic sponsorship." ...
Gdn 17 Jan 2012 Coalition Log OutsourcingThe Sermon on the Mound
Free school £21m private contract plan
... the plans have raised political sensitivities about the boundary between free schools funded by public money and the involvement of the private sector in state education ...
Chris Keates, general Secretary of the NASUWT teachers' union, said:
'It is nothing short of scandalous that the future of our children and young people is now up for sale to the highest bidder." ...
The local families wanting to set up the school in Suffolk say that it will address the need for a secondary school in the area ...
The group wanting to set up the free school, Sabres Educational Trust, is proposing that it should be managed by a profit-making company, IES UK ...
Gordon Warnes, chairman of Sabres said he hoped that "Breckland Free School will become part of a worldwide network of international schools providing an amazing array of opportunities for students and community" ...
BBC NEWS 13 Dec 2011 Education Log
Towards two-tier schoolingSabres Educational Trust
Internationella Engelska Skolan
Plan for specialist maths schools
The Government is to set out plans for up to a dozen new specialist schools aimed at providing the "highest quality maths teaching in the world" ...
Maths is seen by the Government as a "fundamental strategic priority" in education.
With the spread of digital technologies, it is regarded as being of ever-greater importance to the economy, offering students a better chance of well-paid jobs than almost any other subject.
Ministers want the new schools to produce a new generation of mathematicians able to produce breakthroughs in pure and applied mathematics or able to build new innovative companies.
msn.news 26 Nov 2011 Coalition Log
Towards two-tier schoolingFree schools in England set for extra £600m
We shall shame schools that 'muddle through’
Dave's Daily Drivel: Today it's schools, tomorrow ... who knows?
... free schools ... revolutionising education ... what’s happening is fantastic ... shock troops of innovation ... smash through complacency ... relentless about combating entrenched failure ... sort out league tables ... toughening up exams ... freedom to make their own choices ...
Tel 14 Nov 2011 'Divi' Dave Log Education LogDavid Cameron goes to war on Britain's 'coasting schools'
Education spending 'falling fastest since 1950s'
The [Institute for Fiscal Studies] report says that after a decade of rapid growth in funding schools and universities, the UK is now facing the largest cut in education spending over any four-year period since at least the 1950s.
"Having risen by historically large amounts during the 2000s, the UK's education budget is now set for an historically large fall over the next few years," says senior research economist Luke Sibieta.
As a share of national income, the IFS is projecting that public spending on education will fall close to the level of the late-1990s - when it dipped to 4.5%.
It had not previously been at such a low level since the early 1960s.
But these spending cuts will not be evenly spread ...
Among the areas with the deepest spending cuts will be capital funding on schools, which ... will be more than halved ...
The IFS warns that the biggest long-term losers could be early years support, youth services and 16-to-19 education in England.
They will lose an estimated 20%, but unlike universities, the IFS suggests their cuts will not be offset by private funding ...
BBC NEWS 25 Oct 2011 Coalition Log Cutting the Deficit
Towards two-tier schoolingEducation spending 'falling fastest since 1950s'
Whitehall emails reveal the hidden costs of promoting free schools
Civil servants were urged that the New Schools Network – a charity providing advice and guidance to set up the schools – should be given "cash without delay", in a disclosure which will heighten concern over the government's lack of transparency about the wider free schools programme.
The charity, which is headed by a former Gove adviser, was subsequently given a £500,000 grant.
No other organisation was invited to bid for the work.
The award was made after an email from Dominic Cummings, a Tory strategist and confidant of Gove, called for:
"MG telling the civil servants to find a way to give NSN cash without delay."
Cummings went on to work for the charity on a freelance basis ...
Gdn 29 Aug 2011 Education Log Westminster SleazeNew research claims to show “for-profit” schools are great ...
New Schools Network
First group of 24 'free' schools to open next month
The successful candidates ... include a couple of existing schools which have converted to "free" status: the Maharishi School in Lancashire, which follows the beliefs of the former Beatles' guru and introduces its pupils to yoga, and a long-established independent school, Batley Grammar, which has forsaken selection so that it can receive state funding.
The religious groups include the first state-financed Sikh school, the Nishkam School in Birmingham; two Jewish primary schools in Haringey and Mill Hill, north London; a Hindu school, the Krishna-Avanti Primary School in Leicester; and a Church of England school, St Luke's in Camden, north London, an area where there is a shortage of school places.
Then there is the West London Free School pioneered by the journalist and author Toby Young, which will provide a "traditional" academic curriculum with an emphasis on Latin ...
Ind 28 Aug 2011 Education LogMichael Gove's free schools to teach etiquette and fine dining
WLFS: Curriculum
West London Free School
'Great news'
Anti Academies Alliance
Q&A: Academies and free schools
What do we know about free schools?
Michael Rosen
Toby Young's battle to set up a new school
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
West London Free School
Toby Young
Anatomy of a very British 'revolution'
Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity
Ivan Illich
Radical Pedagogy
Gove urges parents into classrooms to break strike
In an unprecedented step in relations between the Government and trade unions, the Secretary of State for Education said that classrooms threatened with closure could remain open if head teachers used the "wider school community" – including pupils' parents – to teach lessons.
Some head teachers have written to parents asking them to consider, if they have been vetted by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), volunteering to ensure lessons go ahead, Whitehall sources claimed yesterday ...
Retired teachers are also being asked to volunteer.
In a letter to schools last week, Mr Gove encouraged head teachers to use all necessary measures to keep schools open.
He wrote that there was nothing to stop head teachers from dropping the national curriculum for a day or increasing the pupil-to-teacher ratio if it meant keeping the school open ...
Ind 26 June 2011
Schools to make up to a fifth of staff redundant
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), which represents 15,000 heads and deputies, said some of its members planned to make 15 or 20 redundancies out of a workforce of about 100 ...
ASCL's legal consultant, Richard Bird, warned that the government's flagship new qualification – the English baccalaureate – would compound the problem.
The qualification is awarded to pupils who achieve at least a C in their GCSEs in English, maths, two sciences, history or geography and a language.
Schools are now measured on the proportion of pupils who obtain this and it is published in national league tables. Bird said teachers of some vocational courses or non-English bac subjects would be more likely to face redundancy.
"If there is going to be a shift in the curriculum because of the English bac, it will quite likely cause restructuring and inevitably create redundancies," he said.
He said senior teachers were also at risk because making them redundant saved a school more money ...
Guardian 13 Mar 2011Heads 'training to let staff go'
Money driving many schools to become academies
A poll of 1,471 heads by the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) found nearly half (46%) had converted to academy status or intended to do so.
Nearly three-quarters of these were driven by the belief that it would help the school financially.
The ASCL said heads were also attracted by the idea of of greater freedom ...
ASCL general secretary Brian Lightman said: "The Department for Education has said in its documentation that there should be no financial incentive or disincentive for becoming an academy, but this is certainly not the message that is getting to schools.
"It is very clear that early converters have gained financially and therefore will be able to protect their budgets in ways which other schools have not.
"Although they know that this funding bonus will not be sustainable, they see it as a way of cushioning their schools from the cuts of the next few years."
BBC NEWS 12 Mar 2011Education Bill outlines shake-up for England's schools
At-a-glance: Education Bill
Would-be state school teachers to be trained in independent schools
At least 18 independent schools have applied to become dedicated “training schools” under the Government’s plan to introduce on-the-job training for all new teaching staff.
Leaders of the independent Schools Council have had talks with ministers following Education Secretary Michael Gove’s announcement that training should be transferred from teacher training colleges to the classroom – to and successfully pressed for their inclusion in the scheme.
One advantage would be they will be able to offer jobs to the most highly qualified – although there will be no compulsion to offer jobs to trainees on completion of their training ...
Independent 10 Mar 2011
Special needs support promises more parent power
Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, warned that the promise of extra support would be undermined by the scale of spending cuts.
"Savage cuts are already being made to many of the specialist services teachers rely on to help them support children with special educational needs.
"Educational psychologists and speech and language therapists are being made redundant as local authorities cut their funding following budget cuts from government." ...
BBC NEWS 09 Mar 2011Parents to get budgets to spend on special needs children
'Support and aspiration'
Q&A: Special Educational Needs
Booktrust reading schemes to lose government funding
The charity Booktrust is to lose all its government funding for schemes that promote reading by providing free books to children in England ...
The money was used for programmes which provide book packs to babies and primary school children in England ...
The schemes in question are:
Bookstart, under which every baby in the UK receives a free pack of books - programmes in England will be affected
Booktime, which provides further packs for children as they start primary school
Booked Up, which enables all year 7 pupils in England to choose a free book.
In combination, the programmes send out 3.5 million book packs every year ...
BBC NEWS 22 Dec 2010Literary heavyweights force free books U-turn
One in 11 boys leaves primary school 'unable to read'
In 1975 the Head of the City of Manchester's Remedial Guidance Service told me that fiftern per cent of the city's pupils needed specialist help with reading.One in 11 boys in England - one in seven in some areas - starts secondary school with, at best, the reading skills of an average seven-year-old.
According to data obtained by the BBC's Today programme, 9% of 11-year-old boys fell well below expected standards.
But in Nottingham that proportion was 15% and the situation was only marginally better in Derby, Manchester, Rotherham and Telford.
The government is bringing in a reading check for six-year-olds.
Education experts said it was hard for children struggling at age 11 ever to catch up ...
BBC NEWS 17 Dec 2010The Durham University study, led by Peter Tymms, concluded that the National Literacy Strategy, which includes the “literacy hour” daily English lesson, had made a “barely noticeable” impression on reading standards, which had barely improved since the 1950s.£500m literacy drive is a flop
The Times 02 Nov 2007Mapping boys' reading ability
Eleven-year-old illiteracy 'unacceptable'
Half of boys, age five, 'struggling in basics'
Struggling pupils promised one-to-one tuition
Government to roll out reading programme
Underfunded primary schools fail to teach basic literacy
Hundreds of authors urge PM to tackle child illiteracy
England slides down world literacy league
Reading and maths standards falling in Britain, says OECD
Four in 10 primary schoolers failing three Rs
England falls in reading league
UK children 'reading too early'
Ten years of bold education boasts now look sadly hollow
Anger as science excluded from new diploma
Thousands of youngsters taking science, languages and religious studies at GCSE face being written off as ineligible for the Government’s new English baccalaureate, it emerged yesterday.
The Government’s White Paper on education last month, said it would be awarded to anyone gaining five A* to C grades in English, maths, a science, a language – modern or ancient – and a humanities subject.
However, ministers have now announced some GCSE science and languages courses will not count towards it..
In addition, GCSEs in religious education will not be considered as a humanities subject ...
Applied science and language GCSEs, taken by more than 20,000 youngsters, were excluded from the list of qualifications to be recognised.
In addition, only history and geography would qualify as a humanities subject ...
Information technology is also not on the list of subjects to qualify for the ranking.
One observer said: “It seems you can get it for studying biblical Hebrew but not a modern day understanding of technology.” ...
Independent 14 Dec 2010A look back to the School Leaving Certificate
'English Baccalaureate' to combat drop in academic GCSEs
'Great news'
Letting the Ideology Show
Napoleon Gove can dictate its terms but the school curriculum is bogus
RE 'could be marginalised '
Why does Gove believe dead languages and Ancient History are more important ... ?
Schools will have freedom to choose exactly how the extra money should be used.Schools get extra cash for poorer pupils
A Pyrrhic Victory for the LibDems?
Education Secretary Michael Gove will confirm details of the Pupil Premium when he announces the schools settlement tomorrow.
Shadow business secretary John Denham told BBC1's Andrew Marr show: "It's a con, that's the trouble.
"If it was new money going to the poorest pupils, I'm sure we would be very pleased about it.
"This is money that's already in the education budget, simply being redistributed, robbing Peter to pay Paul.
"About two thirds of schools are going to see shrinking budgets - so this isn't any sort of victory for the Liberal Democrats."
Independent 12 Dec 2010Schools' pupil premium for England set at £430
How bullet-proof is the schools budget?
School reforms 'could lead to more segregation'
Creating a market between schools is exactly the name of the game.The warnings come in the department's own economic assessment of the Schools White Paper, which was presented to Parliament by Education Secretary Michael Gove last week.
The Gove regime will create a two-tier system.
The pupil premium will not over-ride parental pressure to ensure that 'their' school is 'oik' free.
So the 'oiks' will remain in council-run schools which will be seen - like the old secondary moderns - to be second class, and second rate.
Costs will go up since a market needs surplus places.
As with the NHS, so with the schools: the attempt to provide a service free and run it as a market is an oxymoron.
It describes how the changes it is making to the schools system - increasing the number of autonomous academies and free schools, and reducing bureaucracy around school admissions - will create more of a market between schools ...
[The report] warns of an "increase in stratification" and says "there is a risk that parents select schools based on peer groups, where schools compete to attract particular groups of people, where barriers to choice result in segregation" ...
The report also looks at the government's policy of allowing private and voluntary providers to set up so-called "free schools".
It suggests there are high costs associated with the plans. These include the extra start-up costs and higher costs linked to what will probably be a small number of pupils in such schools.
It says: "There may be lower running costs but these may be offset by the diseconomies of scale associated with small schools.
"A degree of surplus places is necessary in encouraging school choice and competition between schools and this will provide some benefit where standards are increased, but there is also cost to providing surplus places which should be noted." ...
BBC NEWS 02 Dec 2010
The education secretary's budget cuts dismantle a project that everyone concerned considers a success ...Michael Gove has scored an own goal
Cuts Wanderers 1 - 0 Nudge City
The fate of the [School Sport Partnerships] illustrates two unattractive traits of the coalition government.
The first is a tendency to put ideological impulse ahead of evidence.
Mr Gove's communications with the SSP leadership, seen by the Observer, indicate that he objected to the centralised system on principle.
The second is a sneaky approach to cuts.
If schools want their pupils to continue enjoying SSP programmes, they must divert the money from other educational priorities.
Ministers call this "setting schools free from Whitehall", which translates as "letting head teachers inflict the pain" ...
Observer 21 Nov 2010Gove's plan ... splits cabinet
Gove's explanation ...'unforgivably cynical'
Funding cuts will 'decimate' 10 years of progress
Schools asked to ditch logos from PE kits
School Sports
Parents will be able to rate primary and secondary schools according to detailed new information that will show not only the quality and experience of staff but also whether they offer value for money.Teachers' pay and sickness records to be published
The Tories' war on the 'Marxist' teaching profession picks up from where it left off in 1997
For the first time, schools with high staff sickness rates will be exposed.
Reforms will also enable parents to discover the size of teachers' salaries and the number of staff with A-levels, degrees and postgraduate qualifications.
The proposals were made yesterday as part of David Cameron's pledge to shift power away from Whitehall ...
The announcement in central London threatened a dispute with teaching unions after it emerged that the policy would lead to the publication of potentially sensitive details about school staff.
There appeared to be no plans to disclose the salaries of other public sector workers, such as policemen or nurses ...
The document spells out Coalition plans to reform the central contract dictating teachers' pay and conditions, giving individual schools more power to alter staff salaries ...
Telegraph 09 Nov 2010
Gove's 25-year-old ex-adviser given £500,000 free schools grant
Pro-free schools lobby group won project work – which was not advertised – to offer impartial advice on the proposals ...
[Rachel] Wolf, now 25, worked as a special adviser to Gove while he was shadow education secretary.
The [New Schools Network] ... which describes itself as independent, was set up over a year ago.
Mystery surrounds its other sources of funding because it has refused to reveal the names of anonymous donors.
In a response to a request from the pressure group The Other Taxpayers' Alliance, the Department for Education confirmed no other tenders had been sought.
It said: "[New Schools Network] has been active in this area for some time and was effectively the only organisation capable of providing the level of support needed by the number of interested parties quickly enough to enable the first free schools to open by September 2011." ...
The network's business plan which was used to apply for the grant, which was also released under a Freedom of Information request, has been heavily redacted and does not include any figures ...
Guardian 27 Oct 2010
Given that education is meant to be the key that unlocks the barrier to social mobility and we have spent a fortune on our schools over the last couple of decades, why is the social gap no longer narrowing?What's wrong with our schools?
Or, to put it in nice simple language, why do rich, thick kids do better than poor, clever children?
If you take exception to either the language or the sentiment, do not blame me.
I am quoting the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, who also said that other countries are moving ahead faster than we are and it is getting worse ...
So what happens when the disadvantaged children go to school?
By the time they are 14, they are two years behind their more privileged peers and by the time they hit 16, they are massively less likely to go on to higher education, let alone the best universities.
In other words, the gap widens during the school years, rather than narrows ...
The social gap is not about the extremes - Wellington College at one end and Kirkby at the other. And the elite will always be with us.
No, the real battle is being fought on the centre ground - the territory dominated by what David Cameron calls the sharp-elbowed middle class.
People like him, he says, and his wife. People like me and, perhaps, people like you. People who feel they are already being squeezed in this age of austerity.
We have the advantage and we want to hold on to it.
It is not that we want to do down the most deprived; it is just that we want to do the best by our own children.
And if we end up hijacking the best schools for them, the politicians are no more likely to clip our wings and risk our displeasure at voting time than they are to shut down the independents ...
BBC NEWS 19 Sept 2010Unequal Opportunities
Aimhigher
Michael Gove's free schools to teach etiquette and fine dining
Just 16 schools have won approval from the education secretary as part of a radical experiment in English education ...
There is a distinctly religious strand to the first wave, with seven of the 16 having faith affiliations.
Among those expected to open next September will be two Jewish schools in London, a Hindu school in Leicester, a Sikh school in Birmingham and three with a Christian ethos.
Andrew Copson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, said he was concerned this would lead to wider social divides.
"Since the government has made only token gestures to limit religious discrimination in the admissions criteria of free schools, we will see greater segregation and deeper divisions within communities." ...
Guardian 06 Sept 2010 Michael Rosen Tory Education 'Reform' West London Free School
32 schools to reopen as academies
Official figures from the Department for Education will today show that six weeks after the legislation became law, only 32 schools have completed the process to open as academies this month, with 142 in total expected to convert over the coming academic year. More than 2,000 schools have expressed an interest in becoming an academy.
Announcing that every school could apply for the freedoms in May, Mr Gove said academies could become "the norm" in England's education system, adding he anticipated a high take-up of his offer. He insisted it was down to individual schools to make the decision.
Schools rated "outstanding" by Ofsted were pre-approved, meaning that those under this category who applied immediately are the most likely to open as academies first ...
Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union said there were concerns that schools had not properly consulted with staff, parents and their local community over decisions to convert.
uk.news.yahoo 01 Sept 2010Faith groups lead first wave of ‘free schools’
Today's research suggests that fears of a dramatic decline in the skills of British graduates and school-leavers are driving employers to look abroad.Immigration cap will devastate UK companies
Will your 'reforms' address this problem, Mr Gove?
Of those questioned, 42% felt the literacy skills of British graduates had fallen over the past five years, compared with just 6% who said they had improved.
For numeracy the corresponding figures were 35% and 5%, and for communication and interpersonal skills 34% and 19%.
There was a similar pattern when it came to British school-leavers.
Many firms are also looking to recruit from abroad, with one in six saying they will bring in migrant workers in the third quarter of this year.
Gerwyn Davies, public policy adviser at CIPD and author of the report, said the government faced a "complex juggling act".
"The proposed introduction of a migration cap comes at a time when many employers are still struggling to fill skilled vacancies despite the high unemployment rate," he added.
"The training of local or British workers to fill skilled jobs currently occupied by migrant workers will not happen overnight." ...
"Companies want to hire local people, but they often have trouble finding local residents with the basic skills, drive and attitude needed to help the business succeed," said Adam Marshall, director of policy at the British Chambers of Commerce.
He added that the "unintended consequences" of the cap could be widespread ...
Observer 22 Aug 2010The cap on immigration cannot hold
The government has put on hold the implementation of rules forcing schools in England to co-operate locally over excluded pupils.'One in, one out' school exclusions rules on hold
Another step towards a two-tier school system: 'selective' academies; LEA 'sinks'
Due to come into force in September, they would have meant all schools, including academies, had to join local behaviour partnerships.
Under these, schools expelling one pupil often would have to take an excluded pupil from another school.
The government said it wants to reduce bureaucracy to tackle poor behaviour.
However, with the coalition pushing to expand academies, which operate outside the control of local authorities, there are concerns that if schools are able to pull out of local arrangements, those with a higher proportion of disadvantaged pupils will suffer.
The Nasuwt teachers union said the decision to remove the requirement for cooperation risked increasing classroom disruption, bullying, gang-related violence and truancy.
BBC NEWS 12 Aug 2010Ofsted warning over 'untracked' children
Tough talk on school discipline
Large drop in pupil expulsions
What a curious beast is the New Schools Network, the "independent charity" that championed the plans for "free schools" now being rushed through Parliament by Education Secretary Michael Gove.New Schools Network: questions for Michael Gove
The reality of Dave's 'big society' in action.
Click on the group's online form to "Sign up for more information" and a message appears:
"We may pass relevant details to the Department for Education so they can provide assistance. If this is a problem please email us on info@newschoolsnetwork.org."
How many other "independent charities" pass your details to government unless you email to object?
Then again, how many other charities get £500,000 from the government to implement the very policy they've been lobbying for? ...
The Other TaxPayers' AllianceGove fails to respond to our Freedom of Information requests
New Schools Network lacks transparency
Nursery World
New Schools Network
Premier League aims to score big with 'free schools' plan
Following the widespread popular backlash to England's dismal performance at the football World Cup this summer, Michael Gove's schools reforms have struck a chord with the Premier League.
Richard Scudamore, the League's chief executive, is seeking meetings with officials from Gove's Department for Education with a view to setting up schools where the curriculum is based around sport.
"I think there will be a radical development," said Scudamore. "I can envisage the day when there is a Premier League school. We are working with the clubs and we are taking a look at Michael Gove's education reforms to see clubs having relationships with schools.
"If you have an elite athlete why not work on their education? We need coaching, schools and schooling to be very closely embedded for football." ...
Gove's claim in the Commons of 700 expressions of interest in the idea has translated into only 62 formal applications.
If each of the 20 Premier League clubs were to add their name to the scheme that number would be boosted by almost a third ...
Guardian 03 Aug 2010The case against 'Free Schools'
School buildings scheme scrapped
Hundreds of school building projects are being scrapped as England's national school redevelopment scheme is axed by the government.
Education Secretary Michael Gove said 719 school revamps already signed up to the scheme would not now go ahead ...
BBC NEWS 05 July 2010 Coalition LogRebuild plans for 75 schools scaled back
School building programme scrapped
School buildings projects scrapped to save £5bn
Osborne orders capital spending purge
Schools Minister: children are deprived of knowledge
A generation of schoolchildren has grown up without knowing who Miss Havisham was and thinking Nelson won the Battle of Waterloo, Schools Minister Nick Gibb said yesterday.
In his first keynote speech since taking office, Mr Gibb – who is responsible for the delivery of the national curriculum – made it clear he believed schools no longer put enough emphasis on imparting knowledge to pupils.
He called for an emphasis on "facts, data and narrative" in history and "the rich language of Shakespeare" which, he said, "should be the common property of us all". He added, speaking to an education conference organised by the think-tank, Reform: "Yet, to more and more people, Miss Havisham is a stranger and even the most basic history and geography a mystery."
A survey of first-year history undergraduates revealed that twice as many students thought Nelson was in charge at the Battle of Waterloo rather than Wellington.
Ninety per cent could not name a single British Prime Minister of the 19th century.
"Knowledge is the basic building block for a successful of life," Mr Gibb said ...
Independent 02 July 2010 Education for the Good SocietyThe Importance of Knowing How
School plan 'takes money from poor'
Leaked memo shows how coalition government ministers discussed raiding free meals budget ...
Tonight it emerged that ministers considered taking millions from a budget that gives free school meals to the country's poorest children, to pay parents to set up their own schools.
It was reported by Channel Four news tonight that a memo written by one of Gove's leading officials last week recommended that £35m be taken from funds for free school meals and redirected into the policy of free schools.
Gove appears to endorse the idea in the memo, which was leaked to Channel Four. Tonight the Department for Education would not deny the memo existed, but said it planned to use £50m from a pot that helped schools choose the right computer equipment to fund the new schools and to argue for more money from the Treasury in the spending review.
The Department for Education said no money was coming from free school meals to fund the schools.
Gove unveiled plans for the free schools today, emphasising that most would be run by teachers.
Some 750 groups are poised to apply to start a new school, which will be run independently of the local authority.
He said they would reduce some costs and make the programme more flexible by scrapping planning laws to allow schools to spring up in former shops, homes or banks ...
Guardian 18 June 2010Free schools could be set up in shops and houses
Half of schools 'not good' - Ofsted
Education for the Good Society
Neoliberalism and education
The importance of knowing how
Academies bill is anti-democratic, lawyers warn
Opponents say Michael Gove's draft legislation will place fate of country's schools into too few hands ...
... the draft legislation, which will have its second reading in the Lords today ... dispenses with parents' and teachers' legal right to oppose such plans and removes local authorities' powers to veto a school's attempt to switch status ...
Teachers and lawyers said this contradicts the Tory vision for a "Big Society", handing public services to "little platoons of civil society" ...
David Wolfe, an education barrister at Matrix Chambers in London, said:"It is hard to escape the conclusion that this bill is undemocratic. What this does is remove the public process. Nobody, apart from the education secretary and the governors will be able to stop the process. It seems to be entirely out of kilter with the idea of a 'Big Society'. You are handing power to the governors to steal the school. If they want to change the ethos or make the pupils wear the uniform of Etonians, they will be able to, and parents and teachers will be powerless to stop them."... an expert on the labour market for teachers has warned that a mass expansion in academies is likely to drain state schools of teachers in shortage subjects, such as physics and maths.
Professor John Howson ... said academies would swallow up teachers in shortage subjects because they could pay them more ...
Guardian 06 June 2010
Coalition pledge on 'slimmed down' national curriculum
The message is clear: in practice the local authority - marginalised by the policy of, er, 'choice' - will be left to provide for those children 'free' schools have deselected.The national curriculum will be overhauled under a government plan to restore vital “bodies of knowledge” to lessons ...
The review forms part of the new Education and Children’s Bill announced as part of the coalition government’s legislative programme on Tuesday.
Government sources said that the “slimmer” curriculum would prescribe subject content but give schools more freedom to decide how to teach lessons.
The Bill will also introduce a new reading test for 600,000 six-year-olds in England every year – identifying those struggling the most.
This follows research showing that children who fail to master reading at a young age fall much further behind by the end of secondary school.
Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, said an overhaul of the curriculum was vital to restore subject knowledge ...
Telegraph 25 May 2010David Cameron will start to turn his "big society" rhetoric into reality today when he uses the coalition government's first Queen's speech to promise to let 500 secondary schools and 1,700 primary schools have the freedom of city academy status by the summer.Coalition's schools plan to create 2,000 more academies
He will promise all schools judged outstanding by Ofsted the opportunity to become academies, lifting the remaining constraints from local authorities.
Academies have greater freedom to set their curriculum, pay rates and admissions policies.
The education secretary, Michael Gove, is convinced that experience from the relatively small range of existing academies shows they raise standards, promote social justice and can give working-class parents greater choice ...
Guardian 25 May 2010A radical overhaul of school league tables is being planned by the coalition government, it has emerged.Coalition government plans radical overhaul of school league tables
One suggestion being considered is a shift to a "like-versus-like" system, in which schools in the poorest parts of the country will only be compared to those facing similarly difficult situations ...
The number of parent groups that have shown interest in starting their own school has now surged to 550 ...
Local authorities fear that they will be sidelined in the process.
Dame Margaret Eaton, chair of the Local Government Association and a former teacher, said she was convinced the free-schools model could work and would benefit pupils. But she warned the Tories to ensure that councils were able to protect the rights of any pupils who fell through the net.
Guardian 25 May 2010 Coalition LogGove urges all schools to become academies
300,000 teachers off sick last year
'Market-driven education'
All top state schools to be offered instant academy status
Stressed teachers are 'ticking time bombs'
Academies
Economic recovery may miss unemployed
Fears that economic recovery will fail to stem a tide of rising unemployment are likely to be stoked today by revelations that businesses are reluctant or unable to recruit new staff.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales says in a report that although businesses’ confidence stabilised in the second quarter, they plan to increase their workforces by only 1.1 per cent in the coming year.
The CBI and EDI, a body that awards qualifications, meanwhile have found that companies are struggling to fill posts because they cannot find applicants with adequate skills and training ...
A fifth of employers are reported to have been forced to arrange remedial for young recruits in literacy, numeracy and IT in the past year in efforts to get their staff up to speed ...
Times 17 May 2010 Debt,Cuts, Jobs
Change in Education: The Gove Era Begins
Gove spells out education priorities for 'a new era'
It's entirely appropriate that Michael Gove's first test will involve the SATs boycott.The new Education Secretary confirmed that Conservative plans for "free" schools and more academies would be the focus for change.
SATs is the driver of teaching-to-test which has become widespread since Kenneth Baker introduced the bureaucratic National Curriculum in the late 1980s.
Worse, it's an indicator of the degrading of education into mere training.
It has become a utilitarian vehicle consonant with the wider agenda of the state's role in preparing pupils for life in a neoliberal (global) 'society'.
This is, of course, an oxymoron, since the policy of Governmentality is intended to prepare the pupil for a lifetime of personal entrepreneurship - a lifetime of risk and uncertainty - which will demand what Patrick Fitzsimmons calls the " ... continual reconstruction of self ... " and the development of an "independence ... gained at the expense of discarding social obligation for the other members of the community".
Social obligation - the notion of care for, and service to, others - is an ethic incapable of being commodified and therefore detrimental to, and subversive of, market norms.
This presents the state with a conundrum, for it must both control education and commodify it.
For this reason, there has been a bi-partisan aim to downgrade the role of the local education authority as a school provider.
Using the third face of power this objective has been both gradualised, and camouflaged, by the all-purpose term 'choice'.
Here, Michael Gove's previous statements indicate a desire to pluralise provision as confirmed by his interest, for example, in the Goldie Hawn Foundation.
He said nothing was more important to the fairness of society and the country's future prosperity than getting education right ...
(He) set out the priorities, saying: "I believe, nothing is more important to the fairness of our society and the future prosperity of our country than getting education right.
"Too many children still leave primary school every year without meeting basic standards in English or maths and too few 16-year-olds get five decent GCSEs.
"So improving literacy, raising pupil attainment, extending parental choice, freeing teachers from bureaucracy, improving discipline and closing the widening gap between the richest and the poorest should be our shared goal." ...
BBC NEWS 13 May 2010 BlogCan schools be free and accountable?
Education overhaul gathering pace
Broken Forms of Public Service
Education for the Good Society
State Theory of Learning
Radical Pedagogy
The importance of knowing how
Coalition pledge on 'slimmed down' national curriculum
The national curriculum will be overhauled under a government plan to restore vital “bodies of knowledge” to lessons ...
Telegraph 25 May 2010David Cameron will start to turn his "big society" rhetoric into reality today when he uses the coalition government's first Queen's speech to promise to let 500 secondary schools and 1,700 primary schools have the freedom of city academy status by the summer.Coalition's schools plan to create 2,000 more academies
He will promise all schools judged outstanding by Ofsted the opportunity to become academies, lifting the remaining constraints from local authorities.
Academies have greater freedom to set their curriculum, pay rates and admissions policies.
The education secretary, Michael Gove, is convinced that experience from the relatively small range of existing academies shows they raise standards, promote social justice and can give working-class parents greater choice ...
Guardian 25 May 2010A radical overhaul of school league tables is being planned by the coalition government, it has emerged.Coalition government plans radical overhaul of school league tables
One suggestion being considered is a shift to a "like-versus-like" system, in which schools in the poorest parts of the country will only be compared to those facing similarly difficult situations ...
The number of parent groups that have shown interest in starting their own school has now surged to 550 ...
Guardian 25 May 2010 Coalition Log Tory Educational Reform'Market-driven education'
All top state schools to be offered instant academy status
Stressed teachers are 'ticking time bombs'
Academies
MICHAEL GOVE, the shadow schools secretary, has signalled that profit-making companies will be allowed to run chains of state comprehensives under his plan to let parents set up hundreds of new schools.Conservatives to let private firms run state schools at a profit
Parents’ groups will be able to subcontract private education companies to run the schools, without any need to change the law. “I do envisage a role for the private sector,” said Gove ...
The Tories already hope that several hundred of the new schools will have opened by the end of their first term in office, starting from September 2011.
The decision to harness the profit motive is expected to boost the programme’s chances of success.
Other policies outlined by Gove in an interview in today’s Sunday Times News Review include a pledge to eliminate illiteracy before the end of primary school by the time he steps down as education secretary.
He believes this can be done through nationwide use of the systematic synthetic phonics teaching method, with progress measured by new reading tests for primary school children. It involves teaching children to read by using the sounds of letters ...
Under Gove’s scheme, parents’ and teachers’ groups unhappy with local schools would be permitted to set up their own schools funded by the state. They could either run the schools themselves, if able to do so, or link up with existing operators such as schools, charities or, in fewer cases, private companies.
Local authorities will lose their power to veto new schools and there will be a rapid expansion in Labour’s city academies programme, with many existing comprehensives gaining semi-independent status.
Private firms could make a profit by signing long-term management contracts but would not be allowed to own and govern schools.
The main contender at present is Kunskapsskolan, a company that runs 32 schools in Sweden with an informal approach in which children set their own targets. It is opening five non-profit academies in England and would like to run 30 free schools, but will not do so unless it can make a profit ...
Times 11 Apr 2010 Election 2010Cameron's parent school promise
A teachers' union has been challenged to open its own school - in a debate with the Conservatives about their "free school" policy ...Tories challenge teachers to start their own school
In a sharply-delivered exchange of ideas, Mr Gove promised his commitment to promoting the professional integrity of teachers, and Ms Keates pushed him for promises on the future of state education under a Tory government.
Against some heckling ... Mr Gove defended his proposals for free schools - which would give state school funding to other providers to run their own schools.
Challenged on whether he would guarantee that there would be no profit-making companies taking part in this project, he said that he could not give such an assurance ...
Mr Gove challenged the idea that state education always had to be provided by the state - saying that historically it had had many different and diverse providers, such as faith schools.
And he argued that if there was evidence from other countries that a wider range of providers raised standards then it would be "perverse not to pursue diversity" ...
The Conservatives want a cutting down to size of Ofsted, a less prescriptive curriculum and the scrapping of plans to make teachers have a renewable "licence to teach".
Mr Gove also promised to do more to protect teachers who might have their careers ruined by malicious allegations from pupils ...
BBC NEWS 03 April 2010 Election 2010
Business will seek to run state schools after shift in political attitudes
Marketising schools is bipartisan, only the pace may differ. Democratic accountablity, never strong, will vanish.
Businesses are looking to revolutionise state education by bidding to run hundreds of schools, as politicians open the door to new education providers.
Companies want to create national chains of state schools, eclipsing the current groups of charitable academy sponsors, which tend to be small and geographically based.
Although both the Government and the Conservatives say that organisations driven by profit should not run schools, both have created a path for them to enter the sector. Governing bodies of new, or existing, schools can appoint a contractor to operate the school on their behalf — a model used widely in the US.
VT Group, Serco and EdisonLearning are among companies that have applied to be accredited schools providers under a vetting system established by Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, allowing them to be involved in running of a handful of schools ...
• Edison Learning: A subsidiary of EdisonLearningInc, which operates and supports schools in 24 US states. Founded in 2002 and based in Colchester, Essex, works in partnership with 100 schools, from rural primaries to urban secondaries
• VT Group: Claims to operate one of the largest education and training companies in the UK, employing more than 4,000 staff. Already works in partnership with 403 schools in Surrey and 87 in Waltham Forest, East London
• Serco: a FTSE 100 services company with a wide range of public contracts including new school building consultancy, Ofsted inspections and facilities management. Has 110 school partnerships in Walsall, 180 in Bradford and 90 in Stoke-on-Trent
Times 31 Mar 2010 Policy, Delivery, Accountability
Conservatives would allow public services to run co-operatives
It might appear that Osborne has been reading up on Ivan Illich, but - as Robert Peston points out - this may be a new route to privatisation.
As part of a Conservative pre-election appeal to Labour-leaning public sector staff, Mr Osborne said a Tory government would offer a “power-shift to public sector workers”. The move could allow teachers and nurses to remove underperforming managers and take over the running of schools and hospitals themselves ...
He added: "This is a power shift to public sector workers so that they take control of their own working environment and they get away from these top-down bureaucracies which have made life a misery for so many people in the public sector." ...
Mr Osborne said that collectives would still face some central control on the way they provide services.
"The check on quality here is that they would be contracting services to the local authority or the National Health Service and they would be providing a contract, for community nursing or for primary education.
"And we would be making sure, as taxpayers, that we were getting value for money and it was appropriately run and the standards the kids were being taught to were at the right level and the like. So it is not a complete free for all."
Standards such as the national curriculum would remain ...
Telegraph 15 Feb 2010
David Cameron Policy, Delivery, Accountability Reforming the RegimeConservatives need to work on their credibility
Tories renew pledge to allow public sector workers to form co-operatives
The John Lewis state
The Tories are in talks with foreign educational groups - including one run by Hollywood actress Goldie Hawn - to set up state schools in England.Goldie Hawn talks to Tories about setting up schools
Shadow Children's Secretary Michael Gove says he is talking to the French government and a Swedish schools chain.
And he told The Sunday Times his team had also spoken to Ms Hawn's charity, which promotes Buddhist values ...
Mr Gove told BBC One's Andrew Marr show he wanted to give state schools the same "freedom" as fee-paying schools to set their own curriculums, which he claimed would boost the chances of pupils from poorer backgrounds reaching top universities.
"What we want to do, for example, is to allow organisations like a Swedish company, the International English School, the chance to come here to teach the sort of rigorous academic curriculum which too many students, particularly students in poorer parts of the country, are denied." ...
BBC NEWS 14 Feb 2010 David CameronTory Swedish model for schools
Class, say hello to Miss Hawn
Hawn Foundation
The Conservatives are promising to make teaching "brazenly elitist" by improving the quality of graduates entering the profession ...Tories promise to make teaching 'brazenly elitist'
The plans include raising the required standard of entry and setting up a Teach Now scheme to encourage people who have succeeded in other professions to go into education.
The student loan repayment scheme will only apply to graduates getting a first-class or higher second-class degree, Mr Cameron will say.
Shadow education secretary Michael Gove told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that in some countries, such as Finland, teaching was restricted to top-level graduates.
He said: "What we want to do is restore esteem to teaching, to make it an unashamedly elitist profession."
Mr Gove added that the Tory plans would raise the "respect" with which teachers are regarded.
But raising standards did not have to involve significant salary increases, he added.
BBC NEWS 18 Jan 2010Teach First
Tories back 'Teach First' scheme
Teach First is a brilliant idea ...
Can top graduates really teach after just six weeks' training?
Our immigrants' success is not down to Labour
Tories plan league tables review
Tory plans could see schools get extra league table points by moving more pupils through what they call "harder" A-levels, such as maths and physics.
The proposals for England also suggest awarding fewer points for subjects seen as easier, such as media studies.
The Conservatives claim the exam system has been "dumbed down" and that league tables are partly to blame ...
Michael Gove, the shadow education secretary, told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show that he felt the current system of ranking schools on the proportion of students attaining a C grade and above at GCSE was flawed.
He said teachers felt pressured to concentrate on borderline C-grade pupils while the needs of more able students were ignored.
"The truly brighter students aren't being stretched because there's no emphasis on getting people from a B to an A or an A to an A*.
"And what's even worse in my view is that those weaker students, who could really benefit from extra care and attention aren't focused on either."
His party argues that pressure for schools to perform in the league tables could mean pupils are pushed to take subjects that might be easier in order to achieve a higher rank ...
BBC NEWS 16 August 2009Tories announce major overhaul of school exam system and league tables
How we can improve Britain's exam system
State schools may be run for profit
STATE schools could be run by private companies for a profit under plans being considered by the Conservatives.
The Tories had said that only charities and non-profit-making bodies would be allowed to create new “free schools” supported by the taxpayer.
However, the party is ... concerned that too few voluntary bodies will come forward to set up the schools.
“We are considering whether private companies should be allowed to join the scheme,” said a party insider. “We have not made a final decision.”
Among organisations that would be interested is Civitas, the conservative think tank, which runs private schools with fees of about £5,000 a year. Investors in Civitas can make profits, but the size of the dividend is carefully limited.
So far the Tories have insisted they would not let private firms join, partly for fear of being portrayed as “right-wing ideologues” by Labour.
Some Labour politicians have also begun to talk about reform of the school system. James Purnell, the former work and pensions secretary, said last week: “If allowing state schools to be run by profit-making companies encourages equality of capability, we will have to allow it.” ...
Sunday Times 26 July 2009Give parents the keys to a better school
Tories plan to create 5,000 new schools
UP to 5,000 new private schools funded by the taxpayer are to be created under Tory plans to revolutionise the way children are taught.
David Cameron will this week reveal the scale of the party’s ambitions to transform the education system, detailing proposals to replace failing comprehensives and primaries with new “free” schools run by parents, charities and private firms.
They will be given extraordinary freedom to set their own curriculum and will be allowed to abandon GCSEs and A-levels in favour of the International Baccalaureate, European or American exams.
A senior Tory source said: “The mission to shake up our failing schools will be the central feature of our campaign to become the next government.” ...
The full extent of the Conservatives’ plans were set out by Michael Gove, the shadow education secretary, on the eve of the Tory party conference in Birmingham. In an interview with The Sunday Times he said: “It is our intention from day one to make the changes necessary to get new providers into the state school system. We want as much choice for parents as possible.” ...
The Times 28 September 2008
Improving schools
Best for everyoneA decade of education reforms—and lessons still unlearned
THE building is striking enough, if you like that sort of thing—chunky render painted azure and sunshine yellow; the school's name on the side in huge lettering. Inside, though, it is beautiful, with airy walkways and bright, quiet classrooms. The head teacher, Sir Michael Wilshaw, shows visitors the sports hall and theatre with pride. “Who knows what a journalist is?” he asks a class of children with severe learning difficulties. Hands shoot up.
This is Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney, east London, which was opened in 2004 to replace Hackney Downs, a notorious failure. It is independent from local government although entirely state-funded. Its sponsor (Sir Clive Bourne, a local boy-made-good who died this year) chipped in £2m towards the buildings and plenty of good advice. The uniforms are aggressively smart, classes are grouped by ability and rules on behaviour are unbending.
David Cameron, the Tories' leader, and Michael Gove, their spokesman on schools, chose Mossbourne to talk on November 20th about what their party would do to improve education. More schools like Mossbourne, was the gist of it, to be set up by philanthropists, charities and parents, with local government kept well out of it. Mr Cameron called it a “supply-side revolution”, and invoked Sweden's school-choice reforms of 1992.
The choice of venue was pure political theatre, enlivened by some audacious cross-dressing. Of all the “academies”, as these independent state schools are known, none was dearer to the previous prime minister, Tony Blair, than Mossbourne. In 2006 he gave a speech there on his education reforms, his successor, Gordon Brown, by his side.
By planting himself in front of the cameras at Mossbourne Mr Cameron conveyed two messages: that the Tories would continue Mr Blair's reforms—and that Mr Brown would not. Evidence of the latter is growing clearer. Earlier this month Mr Brown ordered an urgent review of academies. More are to open, bringing their number to 400, but they will have to follow the national curriculum (although innovation in teaching was an aim of the programme). And local authorities may now run academies (although prising their grip from schools was another).
It takes political determination to counter the inertia of local government. In 2005 Tower Hamlets turned down an offer from Goldman Sachs, a bank, to sponsor an academy, saying it could run schools just fine itself. And earlier this year another London council, Haringey, competed to open a school under new rules—and won the competition (which it ran itself).
The contradiction at the heart of Mr Blair's reforms was always the absurdity of removing the dead hand of local government, only to impose an even tighter grip from the centre. Over the past decade schools have been showered with directives on everything from school meals to classroom layout. Syllabuses and teaching methods have been specified narrowly. Although academies can ignore their local councils, to set one up requires approval by the schools department in Whitehall.
Centrally imposed targets have distorted both what is taught and measuring how well it is taught. Nowhere is that clearer than in official figures showing that standards in reading and writing have soared. Independent observers say these are unreliable, because teachers have learned to coach children and there is unspoken pressure for scores to rise. In 2005 the Statistics Commission, a numbers watchdog, backed private researchers who said most of the claimed improvement in the performance of children leaving primary school was illusory (see chart).
Sadly, this lesson appears to have gone unheeded. Mr Cameron did not confine himself to talking about new schools and parental demand. He also laid out detailed plans for bossing schools around. All are to bring in uniforms, all are to group children by ability—and all are to teach reading in a particular way. A pity.
The Economist 22 November 2007
To fix broken Britain we shall start at school
David Cameron writes in the Daily Telegraph:
The biggest challenge facing Britain today is mending our broken society. That will not happen overnight: long-term social change needs long-term thinking. And the Conservatives are the only party doing it. We are showing how we will do more to support families, because responsible parents give children the secure and loving start they need. Last week, we laid out our plans to tackle Britain's crime crisis, through reforming our police, tougher sentencing and increasing prison places.
But a long-term plan for tackling social breakdown has to include fixing our education system. Take any marker of our broken society, and educational failure lies at its root. Four in every five youngsters receiving custodial sentences have no qualifications. More than two-thirds of prisoners are illiterate. And nearly one-third of those excluded from school have been involved with substance abuse.
The evidence is clear: if we do not get education right, we will not get our society right. So what is happening under Labour? Forty-three per cent of 11-year-olds cannot read, write and add up properly. Last month, more than 20,000 pupils left school without a GCSE. And right now, more than a million young people are not in education, work or training. Labour has not just presided over educational failure, it has also overseen glaring inequality. At the age of seven, children on free school meals are 19 per cent less likely to do as well in core subjects as those who don't get free meals. By GCSEs, this gap rises to 28 per cent.
Should we accept this? Absolutely not. Take Sweden. There, standards have been raised by allowing innovative organisations to set up new schools in the state sector, championing excellence and giving parents more control and choice. Compare this to Labour's methods: obsessive micro-management and rigid attachment to old-fashioned ideas has entrenched deprivation, shut doors and closed minds. ...
Telegraph.co.uk 02 September 2007
Parents can reclaim the education system
In the second of our Think Local series, in which a group of young Tory MPs and the Centre for Policy Studies set out their vision of a radical unbundling of the British state, Daniel Hannan and Douglas Carswell tackle education
Ministers have tried everything. They have decreed literacy and numeracy hours, new timetables, discipline codes, school dinner strategies. Nothing has worked.
On the contrary, the sheer pressure of targets and initiatives has immobilised our school system.
Our exam results may improve each year but, in the real world, employers and universities are offering remedial courses to bring school leavers up to the standard of previous generations, while international benchmarks leave British pupils close to the bottom of the league.
Grades are kept up by constantly dropping the pass mark: in 1989, you needed 48 per cent to get a C grade in GCSE maths; 11 years later, that figure was 18 per cent.
Excessive state intervention is the problem, not the solution. The Government micro-manages our schools, yet when things go wrong politicians of all parties promise to impose yet more solutions - synthetic phonics, or better discipline, or more (or fewer) grammar schools - from the centre.
The truth is that no minister, however well-intentioned, can thrust his hand into every classroom in the land.
The people best placed to improve the system are those with the strongest interest in the welfare of the children in it: their parents. The accumulation of their millions of individual choices will invigilate and ameliorate schools as no single bureaucracy can. ...
Telegraph.co.uk 28 May 2007
Has David Cameron been reading Ivan Illich?
More of the Same
David Cameron has had interesting things to say about education; he may not have read Ivan Illich, but he appears to have understood the scale of the problem ...
Four in every five youngsters receiving custodial sentences have no qualifications. More than two-thirds of prisoners are illiterate. And nearly one-third of those excluded from school have been involved with substance abuse ... Forty-three per cent of 11-year-olds cannot read, write and add up properly. Last month, more than 20,000 pupils left school without a GCSE. And right now, more than a million young people are not in education, work or training ...... and appears to realise that schools cannot be micro-managed from Whitehall.
[In Sweden] standards have been raised by allowing innovative organisations to set up new schools in the state sector, championing excellence and giving parents more control and choice.Sounds fine until you read The Economist's report of his visit to Mossbourne Community Academy, which concluded:
Mr Cameron did not confine himself to talking about new schools and parental demand. He also laid out detailed plans for bossing schools around. All are to bring in uniforms, all are to group children by ability—and all are to teach reading in a particular way. A pity.The Tories are not into Ivan Illich after all. But they are still into privatisation.
[5] [8] [12]Ivan Illich
Ivan Illich