Free Schools & Academies

What should the Labour party do about the strange objects littering the educational scene.  They are clearly getting out of hand and giving far too much power to the Minister, who does not seem to be answerable to Parliament for his actions. Recently a junior minister in the department changed some rules but was anyone consulted?

Local education authorities are still legally responsible for the education of the children who live in their authority. Given that the Tories are very keen on local action the answer seem to be give power back to local education authorities.

The next Labour government should promise that it would give the money to the local authorities to distribute and decision about academies and free schools would be local decisions, not ones made ny Minsters sitting in London with no apparent democratic control.

If we want to get good people involved in local government we need to give local councillors responsibilty. This would be good for both local and central government.

private schools

Yesterday, whilst tidying the kitchen, I caught part of a discussion about private schools. It is always surprising the justification that private schools and their adherents come up with. They are always the same and they are always self-serving and hide the true reason.

It is an essential part of the class system in Britain, parents buy their way into a small select segment of society, less than 10%, to establish their offspring into a charmed life, or at least that is what they hope. They will claim that they get a better education, for the price they pay, they should. If we spent the same on all children there is no doubt the standards of all childrens' education could be improved. There is the claim that the society cannot afford it, it is more that we choose not to afford it. We choose to pay a banker a £1.5 bonus instead. Mr Cameron wants to give the LIBOR fines to servicemans' charities, he could choose to give it to education or even to Credit Unions who are trying to offer people, especially at the bottom, affordable simple banking.

There is also a claim that they are obviously good because look at the numbers of people from independent schools who get onto Oxford & Cambridge. Unhappily that s part of the class system. Whilst spending time as a visiting fellow at an Oxford college it was fascinating to listen to informal discussions of applicants. One fellow said, and I quote, " I know who will get a first and who a third when I interview them". When asked why he would admit someone who would get a third there was a sort of embarrassed silence. Also overheard and admitted the view that we will have to teach them in our rooms and they have to be the sort of person that they would want to teach. Notice the emphasis on the wishes and preferences of the fellow, not concern for the prospective student.

This is sometimes justifies by trying to argue that if they are from the wrong background they would find it hard to fit in. Perhaps it is the colleges responsibility to do more to help. None of this would matter except for two reasons, one is simply finance. If all universities had the resources to provide the level of teaching that Oxford and Cambridge then it would matter far less where a student went. If all students could have weekly session with faculty on a one to one or two to one basis that might help. Then there are also the level of facilities, every college has a library which means the availability of books for students is much greater than in most universities as well as providing much more space for libraries.

The second reason that could mean that access to Oxford and Cambridge was less important if as a society we placed less emphasis of where someone went to university. An ex-student of mine who went to work for a prestigious city from was told that they had great difficulty in finding first class mathematicians. She pointed out that if they looked at universities other than Oxford and Cambridge they might find it easier.

The private schools now exist to buttress the class system and by letting in a few less prosperous students it looks like they are less exclusive than they are and keeps improving the breeding group for the upper classes.

Education for the masses

  Michael Gove has just announced that lots of extra university places are going to Further Education colleges. Lets be clear this is because they are cheap, so the poor get cheap eduction.

How will these degree courses compare, I wonder how many will be in hard core academic subjects which Mr Gove and the Tories are so keen on or will they be "Mickey Mouse" degrees.  How much credibility will Mr Gove give to a degree in nail care or fish husbandry?  Given that Gove has just cut all those terrible diploma courses what will he do about the new degree level courses with the same subjects. Whilst the staff are colleges of Further Education colleges are very good that have not taught or been trained to deliver serious courses at higher education level.

I wonder whether students who take these courses will feel cheated when they realise they have been sold a an inferior course. Will this government refund them ther money.

Cables Stitch up

It is clear that Vince Cable is lying through his teeth. His proposals on student fees will save the government almost nothing in the short term The claim that students will not have to find the money up front means that the taxpayer will have to find it, so no decrease in governemnet expenditure.

So this is part of a long-term Tory plan to only allow the rich to go to university, once again the desire for power is turning the Tories into cover for the right-wing Tories.

Vlegg & Cable the game is up, you have sold out hook, line & sinker to the Tories for your 15 minutes of fame. Sad but true