Civitas Blog

Dr Ruth Lupton of the Institute of Education has taken the Conservative’s recent education report, A Failed Generation, to task for using dodgy statistics to claim that the education gap between rich and poor has widened on New Labour’s watch. Her criticisms are powerful but not exactly an overwhelming indictment of the report. One of its claims was based on a statistic on SATS mistakenly provided by the DCSF suggesting, helpfully, that results of repeated information requests from government departments are not especially accurate.

Continue reading "“And in the twilight zone, trees are purple (not blue, as Gove claims!)”" »

To claim, as some leading Tories recently have, that ours is a broken society involves their making two tacit assertions. One is about human societies in general; the other about ours in particular.

Continue reading "Why things can still be very bad today despite there being so much to celebrate" »

Poor quality 'vocational' or 'vocationally related' qualifications at GCSE are locking both low-income pupils and vocational education into second-class status.

• Pseudo 'vocational' qualifications being used to artificially reach A*-C GCSE targets
• Poorer pupils more likely to be pushed into vocational qualifications

Out of the thousands of pupils getting their GCSE results today, many will have been sold short with sub-standard vocational qualifications.

A new report from independent think-tank Civitas, School Improvement - or the 'Equivalent', shows how a blind focus on the A*-C benchmark, together with a failure to truly improve schools, has led to a scenario in which pupils are being encouraged to opt out of academic courses and into irrelevant so-called 'vocational' qualifications to boost national GCSE results.

Continue reading "GCSEs - or the poor-man's equivalent" »

Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France and current holder of the EU Presidency, is finally in the press for the right reasons. He was credited with ‘brokering’ a ceasefire between Russia and Georgia last week; a ceasefire which Russia seems to have no intention of honouring. Nevertheless, Sarkozy seems keen to capitalise on his role in the Georgia-Russia negotiations in order to push on with the agenda of the French Presidency of the EU, writes Laura Kelleher.

Continue reading "If you cannot convince them, confuse them" »

So much is wrong with the present state education system. Falling standards masked by ever-rising examination grades. Ever more ‘teaching to the test’ leading to an ever more constricted curriculum, and, in consequence, duller lessons. These in turn, perhaps, are a major contributory factor behind the very real recent large increase in bullying at school and very high levels of truancy.

The list of maladies that afflict the present educational system is seemingly endless. No wonder increasing numbers of parents are choosing to spare their children the ordeal of schooling, by choosing to ‘do it themselves’ at home. Often, these parents seem willing to leave their off-springs' education to the vagaries of chance, with surprisingly little, if any, apparent ill-effect if recent reports are to be believed.

Continue reading "Why the greatest success-stories of schools today are, perhaps, their worst victims" »