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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

There is much talk today of what are known as “Generic Teaching Strategies.” These strategies are said to be applicable to all classrooms, lessons and contexts.
At EducationState we, predictably, reject this belief on the grounds that any teaching must be adapted to the localised conditions of that moment in time and space.

Unlike what can be […]

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 […]

The recent OECD report on Higher Degree Earning Power highlights a number of things.

There is clearly a link between having an education and boosting your earning potential and this is something that Flash Gordon and his mob would have us believe unequivocally. However if you look a little deeper into the subject you will notice […]