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ROKTalk

ROKTalk, the text-to-speech service for websites designed to ‘make websites talk’ through converting written text on websites into real-time, real voice, audible speech, has today announced it is to gift the service to up to 5,000 primary and secondary schools across the UK this year through it’s not-for-profit organization, The ROK Foundation.
There are approximately 30,000 [...]

Constructive Dismissal in Education: a guide

It has come to our attention that the outdated and counterproductive managerialism found in schools shows no sign of crawling back under the rock that it came from.

This dogmatic and wholly unedifying way to treat fellow human beings is at the heart of the peculiarly sickening manner in which ‘efficiencies’ are made in education. Doing [...]

A Minister, not a Teacher

Interesting to note that Michael Gove will be the next Education Secretary in the UK.

A fine party member he may be but he most certainly didn’t go to a state school – although his bio conveniently said he did at one point – and isn’t a former teacher – he’s a journo – so what [...]

HE Comedy Review Returns

Pretend to listen and they shall not kick up a fuss:

http://hereview.independent.gov.uk/hereview/
What a joke!
Lord Browne-nose, how about explaining why students whose parents have paid taxes all their lives now face fronting up more cash so their kid can go to university? And how about explaining why kids with high grades should pay fees and loans [...]

Early Graves

To the TUC, teachers work the most hours of any profession and a significant proportion of that being unpaid OT.

It is then worrying to note the latest research on the effects of OT published on the BBC News website. Working 10 to 11 hour days increases your risk of heart failure by two-thirds.
Recruitment campaigns [...]

Election 2010 Education wishlist

In “Ten education issues the new government should address“, former director of the Institute of Education (doesn’t say which one) Peter Mortimore tells us his wishlist for the next government.

We also have a wishlist for the new party of the moment:
1. Entrust control of Education to an independent body accountable only to the law [...]

New Labour Manifesto

NuLab’s manifesto mentions the E-word but ‘fairness-for-all’? Not if you’ve recently been to or thinking of going to university. Tuition fees, student loans, unemployment and unaffordable property prices. Thank you, Gordon. What a guy!

Tory Manifesto

The Tory manifesto…or is it Nu Lab in disguise? How can you tell?

Election 2010 Education wishlist

In “Ten education issues the new government should address“, former director of the Institute of Education (doesn’t say which one) Peter Mortimore tells us his wishlist for the next government.

We also have a wishlist for the new party of the moment:
1. Entrust control of Education to an independent body accountable only to the law [...]

Oxbridge-speak

Fewer state pupils at Oxford – The Independent
Fewer state school pupils gain Oxford places even though more apply – The Times

Or, alternatively,…

Majority of ’state’ pupils at Oxford (still under-represented) will have gone to selective schools in middle-class areas and not to inner-city comprehensives – EducationState

Without mandatory quotas, Oxbridge colleges will do nothing – EducationState

Association of Graduate Recruiters & Tax Avoid ...

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 [...]

Carthorses

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 [...]

Teaching profession or teaching as a career ‘ ...

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 [...]

Licence to Teach or a Licence for a Robot?

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. [...]

NUS – The Revival?

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 [...]

The Alan Johnson Debacle

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 [...]

Graded Hindrance

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 Unimportance of Being a Paper-Based Writer

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 [...]

Another Charlatan Restructure

Congratulations from EducationState to the civil serpents and politicians who came up with the idea of splitting the DfES up into two parts: Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR).
Genius. So impressive. You think, you spend your younger years slaving away for exams that prove [...]

No Carrots

The Business Link website urges companies to incentivise their staff through perks.

It states:
“Perks are generally a good method of tempting new employees and retaining workers as they are not related to productivity. Perks can encourage staff attachment to the business.
The options
There are a wide range of perks, including:
* occupational pensions
[...]

Hung out to dry

At EducationState we think staff members should be properly rewarded for years of service. Far too many staff in recent times have left with nothing more than a whimper, despite 20-30 years service under the belt. All too often these members of staff are gotten rid of just to lower the wage bill and to [...]

BBC Watch

An article posted today on the BBC News website – ‘Schools ‘got better’ under Blair’ – clearly shows how they pander to the Establishment.

Where the article should focus on Professor Alan Smither’s call for an independent school review body to establish objectively whether students are progressing, instead it chooses a headline favourable to the Government. [...]

Teachers’ Pay

Heard the one about expecting a first-class public service but not wanting to pay for it? It’s not funny and this philosophy affects all of us.

In a country where the government pays backhanders to a Saudi businessman so they buy our toys that kill, no money can be found to meet the reasonable pay demands [...]

Summer Term Blues

Discussions here have led us to conclude that the school/college year needs to change.

We believe terms should be scrapped or shortened. Semesters should stretch through the summer holidays, while teachers and students should be able to choose when they study. Summer course save on heating bills and result in a reduced carbon footprint. Being able [...]

Back-Street Inspections

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 [...]

We Want You As A New Recruit!

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 [...]

Why exams don’t count!

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 [...]

What next? A McLaureate? McNobel Prize? McOscar? Mc ...

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 [...]

Generic Teaching Strategies

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 [...]

The Valueless Degree

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 [...]