11/26/2010

Losing the education vote

A whole plethora of education policies has been foisted upon us this week, and you might expect that at least one of the policies, even one small chunk would garner some support within education circles. Sadly not.

In each and every sphere of education, tried and tested ideas, policy backed by evidential proof, has been axed or scrapped to be replaced by a succession of politically inspired dogmatic policies based on only the evidence of Michael Gove's eyes.

When challenged on the radio about the comments that Ofsted made about the successes and achievements of university based teaching courses, something Mr Gove wants to axed, his response was "I haven't seen that evidence". Instead, he was basing his policies on what he has seen himself.

Again, the Lib Dems like to make out that they have "toned down" the Tories in government, yet I see nothing in Mr Gove's polices that are there because of Lib Dem influence. Instead, I got another email from the Lib Dems banging on about the "pupil premium" again. The Lib Dems are falling in to Labour's trap of re-announcing the same policy over and again, whilst ignoring the fact that the pupil premium was also a Tory policy.

In truth, if the Tories had wanted to reform education they could have reformed Ofsted, turning it back in to a proper inspection system instead of an operation in ticking boxes.

The lack of anything Lib Dem, and the apparent capitulation of the Lib Dem party in allowing the Tories to get total control of education policy (whilst quite ridiculously a Lib Dem MP sits as schools minister), has lost the party many votes from people in education.

8 comments:

Antony said...

Nich; you are welcome into my staffroom where 95% of people supported 95% of the proposals. Don't assume because you (and the teaching unions) are against that we all are.

Nich Starling said...

Please explain what policies were welcomed ?

At what point has anyone ever said "What we need is ex army to sort discipline !"

When has anyone ever said "Floor targets need to rise"

When has anyone ever said that the UEA does a bad job of teaching future teachers ?

Utter rubbish.

Anonymous said...

I have heard that local authorities will still have the power to fund schools instead of the funds being given to boards of governors directly. Is this correct? Won't this mean that local authories can siphon off funding from schools so that the pupil premium is no increase at all and is used to pay for the chief executive's bonus or cabinet councillors fact finding missions to the Bahamas? If this is correct then even the pupil premium has been scuppered.

Also the cuts to Sixth forms put their future in doubt all over the country.

Thats the bell! Time for you to go Cleggy!

Anonymous said...

Sarah Teather has no responsibility for schools. Her remit is children and families. Nick Gibb is the schools minister.

Otherwise I agree

English Pensioner said...

So we mustn't form our own opinions from what we see because the "experts" tell us differently.

I'm sorry, I see illiterate teenagers who can't even write a simple letter applying for a job (confirmed recently by the CEOs of a number of major companies), I see graduates from some so-called "Universities" whose standard of education is no better than mine was with "A" levels back in the early fifties, I see the vast improvement in the reading ability of my great-niece after just two terms at a private school, I see friends who have children in foreign universities because they claim that qualifications from these universities will be worth more in the"world market" than the equivalent from even Oxbridge!
I also see five close friends who now have one or more of their children permanently resident abroad since they graduated from top universities as they believe that there is no future for them here.
And you tell me that one shouldn't believe what one sees, but to listen to the experts - If I were the Minister, I'd be acting in exactly the same way, we've listened to self-styles experts for too long.

English Pensioner said...

P.S.
On top of my previous comments about what I see, we are now being told that any restriction on letting qualified/skilled immigrants into this country will severely handicap our businesses due to the lack of those skills being available in this country. Surely, that in itself is a huge indictment of our educational system - how can people get these skills in third world countries but not here with?
That is, of course, without considering the moral issue of whether it is right to tempt people here from developing countries where these skills are clearly needed. I am very concerned that doctors and nurses are coming here from such countries rather than working where they are needed in their own countries, something that I would have thought would be an issue with the LibDems.

Nich Starling said...

Please don't use private schools as an example.

The pupil/child ratio is usually 12:1 or 16:1. Not the 30:1 in the state sector.

If you make class sizes of 16, to be fair, then you'll see a dramatic jump in learning.

Chris said...

@English Pensioner

So, to get what you said straight. We don't have enough educated people in this country and so to sort it out we should ignore all 'experts' and evidence because they're sure to be wrong, whilst hear say and 'gut feeling' should be welcomed. Utter tosh.

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