FE News
Calls to raise tuition fees and increase parental contributions to education come as no surprise to us here at EducationState.
True to form, an organisation that no-one has ever heard of – Association of Graduate Recruiters – calls for radical changes designed to make the world a better place and then hopes that its members notice [...]
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We again, as we do every year, make a point of reminding Joe Public how overworked and underpaid teaching professionals are with an article ‘Teaching professionals most likely to clock up unpaid overtime’ taken from the University and College Union (UCU) website.
“Teaching professionals are the group most likely to clock up unpaid overtime, according to [...]
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The BBC Education news desk and the The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) seem to believe that a recent ICM survey shows teaching is ‘under rated’.
This may be the case but the study does not show this. The study actually shows us not that teaching is under-rated but that prospects for career development [...]
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Comment
Today’s Observer includes an article attacking the state of the UK education system.
It is written by Anthony Seldon, master of Wellington College. Typically, the current system is said to be ‘in crisis’ and urgent reform is required for the apocalypse to be avoided. It is an indication of how powerful such Establishment figures remain [...]
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We were astounded by the cheek of MPs on the Commons education select committee to call for higher levels of qualifications for teachers given their recent patchy performance.
We have copied and reworded a recent BBC News article by Katherine Sellgren in response.
“Ethical requirements for MPs in England are too low and damage the [...]
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Hello,
My name is James Dunbar and I have written and self-published a scientifically accurate, rhyming comic book about the origin of the universe. It’s called BANG! The Universe Verse: Book 1 . You can see it in (low-res) entirety on my website: JLDunbar.com, but I would like to send you a much higher [...]
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The Gruaniad has an excellent article on the artificiality and crudity of exam grades and worth including in full:
“It was recently reported in this paper that I was proud to have received a third-class degree. Not really. But at 66 it is true to say I am no longer as ashamed of it as I [...]
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EducationState are interested, if not surprised, that the ‘elite’ are out in force ramping up the ‘crisis’ level in much the same way the ‘fear’ level is ramped up by NuLab.
We all know the drill. Some self-appointed ‘expert’ speaks out in public about some perceived problem, statistics at the ready, and either one of the [...]
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Calls to raise tuition fees and increase parental contributions to education come as no surprise to us here at EducationState.
True to form, an organisation that no-one has ever heard of – Association of Graduate Recruiters – calls for radical changes designed to make the world a better place and then hopes that its members notice [...]
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Comment
We again, as we do every year, make a point of reminding Joe Public how overworked and underpaid teaching professionals are with an article ‘Teaching professionals most likely to clock up unpaid overtime’ taken from the University and College Union (UCU) website.
“Teaching professionals are the group most likely to clock up unpaid overtime, according to [...]
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Comment
The BBC Education news desk and the The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) seem to believe that a recent ICM survey shows teaching is ‘under rated’.
This may be the case but the study does not show this. The study actually shows us not that teaching is under-rated but that prospects for career development [...]
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Comment
The NUT has been asking its members to voice their opposition to proposed teaching licences to send in postcards.
To be renewed every five years, licences are intended to improve teaching and weed out the bad apples. Teachers and unions are up in arms about this as they see it as yet more paperwork and form-filling. [...]
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Comment
We have mocked the ineffectiveness of the NUS in years gone by but they are flexing their muscles again and we applaud them.
In today’s Guardian it is reported that, “Students will name and shame MPs who refuse to oppose rise in tuition fee”. Now modern-day students are not known for their radicalism and long gone [...]
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Alan “Postie” Johnson, under attack by usually passive scientists, is aiming to deflect attention from his pathetic attempt to stifle freedom of expression last week by ordering YET ANOTHER review of a Government body that isn’t doing what it’s supposed to i.e do exactly as it’s told.
You may be asking what this has to do [...]
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As the outcry gathers pace and another high-ranking adviser quits his post in protests, Nu Labor look even more besieged than normal.
What is interesting to us is that the parallels with how Education is run are almost spooky. Here an expert in his own field drew conclusions based on the available evidence and this contradicted [...]
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If half a million parents and guardians have submitted appeals regarding dissatisfaction with Little Johnny’s school place then how much is spent responding to them?
The culture of choice is really an excuse to employ more civil servants – how very convenient for them. Nothing wrong with choice but how about cutting costs first. And how [...]
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EducationState have little time for education inspectors.
And why would we? They create unnecessary amounts of stress and bureaucracy. They waste time, money and other resources. And they are used an instrument of fear and control by Government.
It has dawned on us, moreover, that they bear many similarities to some rather unpleasant characters who extort money [...]
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“Truancy rate reaches record level” declares the BBC education website.
We are told that, “The truancy statistics for the first two terms of the last school year show 1.03% of school sessions were missed without permission, up from 0.97%” and “show the rate of unauthorised absences as running higher than any annual figure since 1994, when [...]
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The Primary Review findings prove YET AGAIN that politicians don’t listen and would rather toe the party line than to use common sense and admit to errors of judgement. We at EducationState thought we’d do our bit to improve their listening skills by lending them some of these:
Or these:
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Apparently, we shouldn’t be deriding the fact that McDonalds and other blue-chip companies are starting qualifications of their own.
Mike Baker, the BBC News Education spokesman, calls it “snobbery” to criticise these companies for trying to raise the esteem associated with non-academic, skills-based awards. Snobbery seemed a little inappropriate, however, so we’ve come up with some [...]
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As this Government seem hell-bent on introducing league tables for absolutely everything, we thought it would be fun to come up with some of our own:
1. Weather fronts from March 6th to 27th
2. Fish eaten on Sundays before tea
3. Green vegetables that are boiled not steamed
4. Eyeliner
5. Cheese biscuits
6. Supermarket trolleys
7. Pieces of paper with [...]
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Should knowledge be graded to fit the learner? From pre-school reading books to advanced English textbooks, there exists an enormous selection of material that is designed to avoid scaring students while at the same time allow them to progress. Are such materials helpful, however? Or has this need simply been created by marketing teams to [...]
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We at EducationState have started the new academic year with all the enthusiasm of the last but still face one wrongly-held belief after another.
Take Literacy. Why can’t the powers that be understand that in today’s economy higher-level paper-based skills are not as crucial in the world of work as keyboard-based ones? Clearly, a well-structured essay [...]
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Mr. Mandelson has today been on the radio and in Parliament preparing the ground for YET ANOTHER review of HE entitled Higher Ambitions that fails to offer anything we didn’t know.
First reactions to this have revolved around increased tuition fees and redirecting funds to on-line, mature and part-time students.
We’ve taken the statement made by [...]
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Oxford to defer use of A* grade for admissions? Why bother? Still doesn’t deal with the more fundamental issue of whether grades can be awarded fairly. Changing the grades won’t alter the fact that the whole grading system of A levels and so on is ripe for reform.
As argued before on EducationState, the awarding [...]
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We can only but admire the logic of a system designed to record progress and raise standards that in fact is costing £700 million and rising. Brilliant for those who provide the examinations e.g. Cambridge University, Edexcel, Trinity and so on.
Why is it costing so much? External agencies holding educational establishments to ransom? A National [...]
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It has been revealed in The Guardian that from next year (2008/9) the running of Education will be placed in the hands of locally-appointed councillors, experts and teachers doing away with over 150 years of state control.
Explaining the volte-face Ed Balls MP, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, explained that “the time is [...]
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WE would like to offer our sympathies to all those hard-working teachers who have recently had to endure an observation grilling.
As a result WE have put together a list of reasons why observations, at least in their current form, make little sense:
1. They lack objectivity because objectivity is unattainable. The mere selection of criteria with [...]
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Recent lighter-touch inspection regimes have been welcomed by some but we believe such a welcome would have been less warm if the true impact had been known. For it appears that Ofsted inspections have been replaced with institution-led inspections.
Whereas in the past we may have expected observations to be in-house and free of [...]
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The mass hysteria surrounding the alleged epidemic of British youth destroying the very fabric of society has reached fever pitch. Not wanting to miss out on any political point-scoring, the Tories would love to see soldiers retrained as teachers. Apparently, they don’t think feral youth have it hard enough so they want to really rub [...]
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David Miliband. What have we done to deserve someone like you?
According to Wikipedia, “David Miliband was educated at schools in London, Benton Park School in Leeds and Boston, Massachusetts before being educated at Haverstock Comprehensive School in North London, where he obtained a Grade ‘D’ in Physics A-level, and 3 Grade ‘B’s.” After fluffing his [...]
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We thought our readers may be interested in this clever new website:
“Greetings,
I appreciate your dedication to higher ed and enjoy your blogs. I too love higher ed and have launched a new website www.campusleftovers.com. The website is free for everyone to use and is comparable to a “craigslist” for higher ed. Some unviersities have begun [...]
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Members’ biographies
Lord John Browne
John Browne was born in 1948. He joined BP in 1966 as a university apprentice. He holds a degree in Physics from Cambridge University and a MS Business from Stanford University, California. He is President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the Royal Society and The American Academy [...]
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“The Universities Secretary Lord Mandelson today announced the appointment of Lord Browne of Madingley as chair of the Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance.”
A farce already. The appointments do not include anyone whose income will be harmed come the inevitable hike in fees. In fact, the review panel is so unbalanced and [...]
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“Universities make £60bn a year for UK economy, study finds” faithfully reports the Guardian.
UK Universities report, produced for Universities UK by Ursula Kelly, Donald McLellan and Emeritus Professor Iain McNicoll of the University of Strathclyde, attempts to show how profitable and integral the university ‘industry’ is. Apparently, “through both direct and secondary or multiplier effects [...]
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Recent headlines have highlighted how education research findings must be treated with a little suspicion.
Contrast the findings of the government-funded UK Commission for Employment and Skills (Ukces) review into further and higher education, which calls for yet more league tables – this time in FE – with the Cambridge Primary Review that calls for formal [...]
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We at EducationState think that it is very, very sad that, according to the BBC, “Children as young as seven are to be offered careers guidance under a government scheme in England.”
Is this what children really need or will remember? Psychologists tell us that our automatic, non-conscious behaviour starts early on in life but we, [...]
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We see that the “Tories back ‘Teach First’ scheme”.
It seems sensible to encourage ‘high-flying’ graduates to join the teaching profession so that they can pass on their skills and experience.
However, we would argue that this scheme is not the answer to teacher recruitment and retention. Improved working conditions especially eradicating all paperwork and restoring [...]
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“Union leader calls for review of mobile phone ban in classrooms”, says the Observer. Really? Perhaps so. After all, the article later declares: “In schools where children were provided with handheld computers with phone and internet access to use in lessons, teachers have reported very little misuse, according to David Whyley, the headteacher consultant for [...]
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We’ve received the following email from the BBC.
Anyone interested please contact them using the e-mail address below:
“Hi,
Sorry to bother you.
I work for the BBC’s Today programme and we were wondering if you’d be able to help us.
There was a story in the news yesterday (11 March 2008) that some schools were breaking the rules [...]
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Great response to a BBC News article about what makes a good teacher.
The following response is indicative of the rest:
“I would have thought that it was quite obvious what makes a good teacher in this day and age. The ability to cope with enormous amounts of administrative paper-work including individual lesson plans for every lesson [...]
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