Most of our readers will no doubt remember Saddam Hussein’s press officer during the 2nd Gulf War, Comical Ali aka Baghdad Bob.

He became known for his outrageous and simply ridiculous attempts to pretend to the world’s press corp that Saddam’s Iraq was far from imploding but actually resisting the Allied Forces (even while Baghdad itself […]

Shelter, the homeless charity, should know about housing costs.

They have released some very alarming statistics showing how much it would cost to buy a property in the UK. The strike action taking place on 24th April has been attacked, predictably, for letting students down. But when teachers’ pay is so low - they need […]

We at EducationState have read with horror that the National Union of Students is to now accept tuition fees and fight for them to be capped rather than continue to oppose them outright as they have since 1997.

We now call on the NUS to explain why they bother to exist AT ALL. Apart from being […]

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 […]

A TUC report makes interesting reading not least because the main news channels and the press in the UK neglected to mention its real significance.

According to their analysis of the Labour Force Survey, teachers work more unpaid overtime hours than any other profession, and that includes hot-shot lawyers and City types. While teachers worked, on […]

We feel that there is need for a balanced, gender-bias free debate on the reasons for and solutions to the problem of declining support for education among males.

Based on the latest university application figures from UCAS, a BBC Education web article today states quite matter-of-factly that: “Overall not only have far more women applied (to […]

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 […]

We all know it happens but why do educationalists not take a stand against miserable working conditions, low pay, no perks and constant bureaucratic harassment?

EducationState calls on ALL educationalists to put their politics to one side and unite against the forces of evil i.e. Government and claim what is rightfully ours.
Our manifesto:
- No more goodwill […]

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 […]