Posts Tagged school choice
Punish ambition and reward failure ? There is an alternative
Posted by Nick Cowen in Education, Tax and Spend on 04/01/2011
Years since he first proposed the idea, Sunder Katwala, General Secretary of the Fabian Sociey, still has the same solution to Britain’s educational woes: big government should pick up its clunking fists and pummel the most successful independent school system in the world, preferably with a VAT on fees. This, somehow, will atone for all the sins of educational failure in the state sector. It was a bad idea then; it is a bad idea now.
Commercial Free Schools benefit teachers and disadvantaged pupils
Posted by Nick Cowen in Education on 17/12/2010
When school choice emerged as a popular policy proposal for the UK, the pro-Whitehall control contingent in the education debate began latching on to any argument to suggest it couldn’t work. Now a new report by Gabriel H. Sahlgren puts many of their concerns to rest.
Faith in Free Schools
Posted by Nick Cowen in Education, Religion on 29/07/2010
The coalition Government’s ‘free schools’ proposal hasn’t so much split religious believers from atheists, but more those who accept parent choice as a progressive reform, and those who reject it. Despite the fears from all sides, there is a good chance that all of Britain’s diverse belief systems will benefit if schools gain more independence.
“And in the twilight zone, trees are purple (not blue, as Gove claims!)”
Posted by Claire Daley in Education on 27/08/2008
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.
Toynbee: a few mistakes on Swedish schools
Posted by Nick Cowen in Education on 09/04/2008
Via Tim Worstall, we learn that Polly Toynbee is falling out of love with the Swedish model just as the Tories are gaining interest in it. In the past, responses to a columnist’s claims could only be aired in a carefully guarded newspaper’s letters page. Now many online editions of columnist articles have comment facilities and the global nature of the Internet means that responses from around the world can be almost instantaneous with the original claims. The Local (which provides news about Sweden in English) has picked up on Toynbee’s article and has picked out a few inaccuracies. It is also worth looking briefly at her comments on the Swedish school reforms…
State control means state schools struggle to shine
Posted by Nick Cowen in Education on 28/11/2007
The number of privately educated pupils being accepted into the UK’s top 20 universities is gaining over state educated pupils, despite government policy to encourage universities to widen their intake. The BBC’s somewhat aggressive headline ‘Private pupils grab top courses’ makes it sound almost like their achievement is more down to their superior grappling technique, perhaps practiced during the push and shove of the tuck shop queue!