Madsen Pirie comments on the row about how to measure school quality:
The Department for Education has issued new league tables to measure schools' achievement. They show that performance is up, especially at state schools. The news is not all good, however, because the validity of the new tables has been questioned. Controversially they include a range of vocational subjects not previously counted. The Independent Schools Council points out that certificates in cake decoration or pattern cutting and wired sugar flowers are deemed equivalent to GCSEs in English, mathematics and science. A distinction in cake decoration was worth more than an A grade in GCSE physics under the "absurd" system, it said.
There has been plenty of criticism from others, or Stephen Twigg wouldn't be dismissing it. Pirie continues:
Stephen Twigg, the School Standards Minister, dismissed the criticism as "old-fashioned educational snobbery," saying that the move reflected that "the world has moved on."
Why does "moved on" so often make you hear "got worse"? (Moveon.org = Gotworse.org - yes, that works too.)
Pirie ends his posting thus:
What is needed is outside evaluation. We prefer external assessment of a company’s credit worthiness rather than its own evaluation. Similarly, we could put more trust if outside bodies set the standards for school performance and measured their achievement. When the state measures its own performance, we have less confidence in its objectivity, or in the validity of its results.
From today's Guardian:
Ruth Kelly had better watch out. She may have arrived as education secretary proclaiming herself the champion of parents, but it's pupil power which could jump up and bite her, for secondary school pupils are about to get their first union.The English Secondary Students' Association (Essa) is the first union for 11-19-year-olds. It is the brainchild of secondary student, Rajeeb Dey, from Chelmsford in Essex, who heard that Ireland and most of Europe have a union, while England does not.
I wonder what the teachers' unions will make of that.
Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, welcomed the move, saying: "It is essential to realise that children and young people are not merely citizens-in-waiting. They are citizens in their own right. So listening to what children and young people have to say is not just a matter of courtesy. It goes to the very heart of what it means to be an active citizen."
I agree, sort of, but I also want to vomit. Just a little.
I thought that this posting was going to be about this story, as told in paragraph one:
LATER this month Brakenhale School will be officially no longer be classed as failing. This is great news and a huge testament to the hard work which has gone on over the two years it has been in what the government calls 'special measures'.
But it turns out that my posting is actually about paragraph two, which reads as follows:
It is difficult to underestimate how serious a crisis was at the back end of 2002.
I see two howlers in this short paragraph. First, to be charitable, let us surmise that a "there", or equivalent word, was simply missed, between "crisis" and "was". Either that or the "a" should be "the". But second, more seriously, "underestimate" should be "overestimate". You see this a lot, and it makes the hackles of my inner stickler, to use Lynne Truss' phrase in this book, rise. Can a stickler have hackles? The one inside me does.
Government inspectors were appalled by what they found, concluding that the children were not provided with a proper education.
This Bracknell News opinion columnist seems to have suffered educationally also.
Natalie Solent seems to be in an educational mood just now. First there was this:
I hereby submit my new general theory on the learning of foreign languages. This article in Le Monde about the oil for food scandal was of particular interest because it was of interest.I took O-Level French at sixteen. Since then, linguistic stagnation, slightly ameliorated by tourism. But since I've been on the internet and can read French stuff which is about things I want to read about I have started learning French again.
I have these little insights from time to time. The great thing about blogging is that you can exhibit them and win either way. If the so-called insight was and always had been obvious to the entire world apart from me it doesn't seem to matter. Readers simply do not linger there. But if the reaction is "Natalie, you have put into words that very thought most needed by a suffering humanity; here, take all my worldly goods as a partial recompense," that is OK, too.
I kept that last paragraph in not because it is especially educational, but simply because I like it. Bloggers are as good as their best postings, but not as banal as their worst. Discuss. Although I suppose the insight that if you write down an insight, you are more likely to reflect upon it intelligently, and if it is true and valuable to remember it, is educational.
And then for her next Natalie did a longer posting about the question of those little life skills, i.e. the kind of essential stuff that you may get taught at school, but may not. Like: cooking, sewing, keeping a diary and thereby keeping appointments. And I would add: typing and driving.
The first of these two Natalie postings actually says a lot about the second. You learn the life skills you are interested in learning. And I entirely agree with her that the Welfare State hugely interrupts that process, by dis-incentivising the learning of anything. Or, to put it another way, necessity is the mother of education.
James Tooley, Professor of Education at Newcastle University, has got himself some local media coverage:
Governments around the world are not capable of providing "education for all", a controversial North academic has argued.A study by Newcastle University professor James Tooley says that in developing countries, private schools for the poor offer the best method of reaching targets set of getting all children into education by 2015.
Prof Tooley argues that private schools in the Third World are often superior to state schools and has called on the international community to throw its weight behind fee-charging schools.
The study, published in the Journal of the Institute of Economic Affairs, is the latest controversial statement from Prof Tooley, who was once described as the "high priest of privatisation" for his championing of the private sector.
And then they wheel on another expert to show that Tooley is talking nonsense.
I am a huge admirer of James Tooley, and of what he is trying to do, and the story he is trying to tell.
This piece tries as hard as it can to make it sound as if Tooley is (a) mad ("controversial"), and (b) recommending, in defiance of all regular behaviour and best practice, private schools for the Third World. But the real story Tooley has been reporting for the past several years now is that the Third World is already going full steam ahead with private education, and doing very well with it.
And what is more, Tooley has travelled extensively and observed this process, which you can't tell from this article.
Tooley's web presence is not very impressive, for a man with such an interesting message, and such a global one.
Tooley, as I say, travels a lot. He visits any number of interesting places. He sees all sorts of stories and meets lots of fascinating people doing fascinating things.
I know that as soon as anyone does anything interesting and valuable, people queue up to tell him he ought to be doing more, but … Tooley really should have a blog. And a digital camera.
He should, in short, combine his virtues and achievements with mine. Which is, I suppose, how advice tends always to go.
I googled for "education uk", but for some reason got to this excellent piece about sex education in China:
With prints of paintings by Picasso, Dali and Delvaux donning the walls, the cafe looks no different from others in Shenzhen, the booming southern Chinese city, except its name, Sex Cafe, which draws many curious young men to take a look inside, albeit blushing a little and tentative."The cafe is awesome," said a youngster surnamed Yu, who was surprised to find he could borrow books related to sex and surf Internet connections which provide addresses of websites giving advice on sexual health.
"Our service is to bring convenience for customers by combining sex education, sex counselling and free condoms into a one-stop shopping experience," said Tao Lin, director of the city's family planning centre, whose idea it was to turn the original sex education centre into a cafe.
"Backed by the local government, the cafe isn't run for profit, but for the social benefits of local residents," Tao was quoted as saying by China Daily.
Although China is opening up very quickly and perceptions are changing very fast, buying condoms and asking for help on sex issues remain embarrassing to many people.
"But a sex education cafe could make a difference," said Tao. "People won't feel embarrassed to come here in the name of grabbing a cup of coffee."
Interesting in all sorts of ways.
