Archive for July, 2008
Requiem for the National Curriculum
Posted by Nick Cowen in Education on 18/07/2008
[This commentary by Prof. David Conway was originally written on 10 June 2008 - it is reposted here so it can be linked to John White's response to Conway's claims]
This year sees the twentieth anniversary of the national curriculum. To mark the occasion, last week London University’s Institute of Education held a conference on the subject.
There a former professor of the Institute John White delivered a diatribe against the national curriculum, arguing it to be in urgent need of radical overhaul, if not wholesale replacement.
ETS, SATS and leaves
Posted by Nick Cowen in Education on 16/07/2008
The past month has the seen the Government’s SATS exam system implode in the bureaucratic equivalent of an ageing star collapsing into a black hole. There were delays to the SATS results and claims that the delays were just to make sure that the release was orderly and complete. Then the release this week was neither orderly nor complete with some results delayed until September and head teachers have been forced to send poorly marked or unmarked exam scripts back to the company, ETS Europe, that is meant to be managing the scheme. There was blood on the radio 4 airwaves this morning as John Humphrys eviscerated Ken Boston for the QCA’s handling of the scheme and it turns out ETS Europe have managed to score a lucrative £156 million 5-year contract to administer the SATS marking.
What Ed’s All About, IT
Posted by David Conway in Education on 15/07/2008
If anyone were seemingly less well-suited to be in charge of the country’s education system, it is surely the current Secretary of State for Schools, Ed Balls.
For anyone to be qualified for that job surely demands that he or she should have some modicum of feeling for what the purpose of education of is.
Yet, judged by the account he is reported to have given of its purpose in last week’s Times Educational Supplement , it is clear he hasn’t a clue.
Now, let’s be franc
Posted by Claire Daley in European Union on 14/07/2008
Brussels’ ever tightening grip on EU member states has seen supranational powers creep into the daily lives of ordinary Europeans. This loss of local power has eroded regional identities. However, some of Europe’s citizens are taking a stand against the surge of Brussels’ influence; battling the tide of EU domination in small, but hugely significant, ways.
Accident and emergency
Posted by James Gubb in Health on 11/07/2008
‘Until last month’, writes Jenni Russell in The Guardian, ‘it had been years since I’d been inside [A&E]. In the intervening time I assumed that the money poured into the NHS would have made a visible difference to A&E too.’ In her view, it hasn’t; ‘barbaric’, ‘no-one to help’, ‘inhuman’ are powerful words. Yet sadly, it’s an all too familiar tale.
The NHS might be seeing some five million more in A&E now than in 2000 and rushing the majority through in under four hours, but the experience of patients all too often remains unchanged. ‘At a time when the government is increasingly concerned about how people interact with one another in public places’, Russell continues, ‘it seems perverse that institutions run by the state should abdicate their responsibility for setting more civilized norms.’ Perhaps true, but has the state ever been particularly good at this? By extending its regulatory capture ever further, is it not becoming part of the problem?
The EU’s Babbling Tower
Posted by Claire Daley in European Union on 09/07/2008
Following Wales’ request last year, the EU is close to recognising Scottish, Gaelic and Welsh alongside the current 23 languages officially used by the EU institutions.
Welsh is already used in the country’s own Assembly and spoken by one in five members of the Welsh population, but under the new proposal, Scottish and Welsh citizens will be able to correspond with the EU Council of Ministers in their native language – a similar arrangement to the one negotiated for Spain’s regional languages – Basque, Catalan and Galician – in 2005.
The added translation costs will be financed by the Scottish and Welsh governments.