On the day the Key Stage 2 Sats results are released, a new report from independent think-tank Civitas, Fast Track to Slow Progress, based on a nationwide survey of 107 secondary schools, reveals that 9 out of 10 secondary school teachers cannot rely on them: 90% of secondary school teachers surveyed have found the Key… [Read More]
Commuters this morning faced the Metro’s frontpage screamline that British Gas has just put its gas prices up 35 per cent and its electricity prices 9 per cent. At the same time, MPs are calling for a windfall tax on energy profits. The price rises (and profits) are, of course, ridiculous but it would be… [Read More]
While the DCSF’s priority currently is to make all schools “zero-carbon“(an ambition which always somehow reminds me of Pol Pot’s “year zero” objective), this amusing take on today’s announcement that each school shall have the option of having a policeman on hand reminds us what schools were for before the state got too involved. A… [Read More]
‘It’s simply not possible to transform health care to meet the needs of the 21st century without strong initiatives that focus on the demand side; no matter how good the regulator is’, opened Mark Britnell at the latest in Civitas’ series of debates on NHS reform. The NHS’s history, he put it, has been one… [Read More]
The government’s pledge to re-build every secondary school in the country, together with the rapid rolling-out of the academies programme, has put school design at the forefront of the DCSF’s mind. Apparently not, according to the government’s architectural advisers who this week have expressed serious concern over the ‘substandard’ designs of the majority of current… [Read More]
As father of two teenagers growing up in the nation’s capital, I am only too acutely aware of all the physical as well as moral dangers to which young people are exposed these days. No weekend passes hardly but that, along with countless other parents, I spend many hours plagued by mounting anxiety as to… [Read More]
Ireland voted ‘No’ to the Lisbon Treaty On 13th June 2008. The ‘No’ campaign was led by single-issue pressure group Libertas whose exclusive objective was to secure a resounding ‘NO!’ to the Lisbon Treaty. Well then, congratulations Libertas! Job done! Surely Libertas’ chairman, Declan Ganley can now return to massaging his business millions whilst enjoying… [Read More]
[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… [Read More]
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… [Read More]
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.… [Read More]