Archive for February, 2007
Poking the school choice myth with a stick
Posted by Nick Cowen in Education on 28/02/2007
The Telegraph reports today that over 200,000 pupils in the UK will miss out on their first choice of secondary school this year. Going by last year’s figures, the problem is concentrated particularly in inner-city areas. In 2006, 33% of Birmingham students failed to get their first choice place. In London, Wandsworth, Brent and Westminster faced similar figures of 36%, 28% and 32% respectively.
Meanwhile in Brighton, the Labour run local authority has made the arguably laudable attempt to clamp down on selection via house price by introducing a lottery for oversubscribed school places. The aim is to prevent further economic and social segregation that the limited number of places in good schools has managed to entrench up until now.
‘We don’t need no EUcation…’
Posted by Robert Whelan in European Union on 27/02/2007
By Pete Quentin
At the heart of the EU debate (as with almost everything else in politics) is the question of identity. Which groups, or communities do individuals believe themselves to be members of? What is it that allies them to these groups and separates them from others? A major factor in determining the answer to these questions is historical experience, whether it be personal, communal or in this case national.
Regardless of where you are and whom you ask, if you quiz someone on their identity, they will NOT describe themselves as European – not even beyond the continent and certainly not in Brussels! They may be Portugese, Scottish, or even Cornish but they will not be European. Here lies the fundamental problem with the EU project – it requires the sacrifice of, above all else, national sovereignty. People make sacrifices and bear burdens for those things they identify with and they do not identify with the EU.
Mismanaging teacher retention
Posted by David Conway in Education on 23/02/2007
School ‘improvement’ strategies which alienate teachers and thereby set schools back, have become a recurring theme under the New Labour government.
1.2 Million European Immigrants in the UK by 2010? We can only estimate
Posted by Nick Cowen in European Union, Immigration on 21/02/2007
One of the biggest controversies surrounding immigration is that no one knows exactly how many immigrants from the enlarged EU enter the UK; let alone how many currently reside and how many are working.
A simple method of inquiry, that the government should have implemented years ago, is one universally familiar to club bouncers: counting people in and out at the doors. A system to count legal migrants as they enter via tunnel, sea or air would have required just a little extra work at passport checks and keeping track of passengers as they exited the country. Since there re no limits on entry or staying in the country, there would have been little incentive for immigrants from the Accession 8 countries (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) to enter the country illegally and hence a relatively good indicator of the numbers currently resident in the UK could be created. This, for one reason or another, has never been implemented.
A different ‘new story’ for the EU
Posted by James Gubb in European Union on 20/02/2007
One can easily agree with the premise of Timothy Garton Ash’s search for ‘the story Europe wants to tell’; namely that ‘Europe has lost the plot’. In an essay recently published in Prospect magazine Garton Ash states that ‘as we approach the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome…most Europeans have little idea where we’re coming from; far less do we share a vision of where we want to go’. Very true. And the vision he offers of focusing on shared goals – freedom, peace, law, prosperity, diversity and solidarity – is not necessarily a bad one; it’s just that he somehow assumes the current structure of the EU is the best way to go about achieving them.
Classic challenge?
Posted by David Conway in Education on 16/02/2007
‘Class war over classics’ is the Times Education Supplement’s front-page headline. Following the Government’s list of books in their Key Stage 3 reforms, the TES reports that staff are planning to simply disregard the diktat: ‘They said it was misjudged, politically motivated and “will not be taught”’. Whilst education secretary Alan Johnson describes the texts in question [for example, Austen’s Pride and Prejudice] as “untouchables”, critics such as the English Association secondary committee’s is quoted as saying: “I would be stunned if any of these writers are taught.” Although anti-elitism has been referred to in the argument for dropping texts like Coleridge’s Kubla Khan, the main objection to keeping these texts on the syllabus is that they are too difficult – rather than too irrelevant – for Year 7 and 8 pupils. The TES quotes one teacher as saying: “ Is whoever chose these writers prepared to come and teach them to my bottom set Year 7s?”
But are the educational community underestimating pupils, and perhaps thinking about the test levels they must get their pupils to reach? The ‘classics clash’ coincides with new research from London University’s Institute of Education, which throws into question both teachers’ expectations and the ability sets pupils are put into. The research, which shows that ‘many secondary school pupils in England find their school work too easy and want harder lessons,’ found that between 18% and 25% of 13 and 14 year-old pupils want to be in a higher ability set in order to do harder work. According to Professor Susan Hallam who led the research: “It seems highly likely that what is happening is that teachers’ expectations are not sufficiently high for quite a lot of students.”
Does this mean then, that the Government’s push for more challenging classic texts will benefit pupils? Probably not. The trouble is, that with the pressures put upon teachers to achieve targets in the Key Stage 3 assessments, harder texts won’t equate with more of a challenge for pupils. As Dr Bethan Marshall from King’s College London predicts, “teachers will pick a few short stories or excerpts to get around it.” One clear lesson from the debate, an increasingly old lesson, is that all these central diktats – on what’s taught and what’s tested – are doing little for learning. Were schools allowed to respond a little more to their pupils, rather than just Whitehall, the curriculum might become more ‘fit for purpose’ [that is, learning - though it’s easy to forget].