Should Gove be using children as pawns in his school privatisation plans?

When anyone asks me which Tory I hate most, it’s such a difficult choice. Sometimes I think it’s Osborne, the Bullingdon Club idiot doing his work experience as Chancellor of the Exchequer and displaying total incompetence. Sometimes I opt for Lansley, who has been secretly planning to destroy the NHS for the last seven years, while taking money from private healthcare providers both for his own office and that of the Tory Party. (I hope that when this government is thrown out, its corrupt members follow Chirac, Berlusconi and possibly Sarkozy into the dock to face criminal charges.) Cameron himself is a strong candidate, for all the lies he’s told both before and since the election, and Clegg, though not officially a Tory, has allowed so many appalling policies to be implemented, that he's always a major contender. But inevitably I settle for Michael Gove.

Gove was a Murdoch journalist who was still on the payroll long after he ceased working for News International. What he knows about education can be written on the back of a postage stamp, but that doesn’t matter, he’s on message and knows what has to be done to destroy our state education system.



It was the responsibility of Willetts rather than Gove, but when this rancid Tory-dominated coalition first came to power, it in effect privatised higher education at a stroke and then tripled student tuition fees. That made sure that not so many people would get a university education, which the Tories have always believed should be reserved for the rich and privileged – with just a few token scholarships made available to some intelligent children of those they view as ‘plebs’.

Meanwhile, Gove has set about privatising state schools. Firstly, he put up the threshold for determining that a school is failing and requires intervention. Previously the threshold was a 35% pass rate A-C in 5 subjects including Maths and English; now it’s 40%. Then to make sure that even more schools ‘fail’, he manipulated the exam boards to change the grade boundaries, so that fewer children pass English. So hundreds of schools are now eligible for intervention and will be forced to become academies run by chains favoured by Gove and no doubt donors to the Tory Party.

Schools that become academies are not bound by the same pay and conditions agreements that the teaching unions negotiated. At the moment the academies pay the going rate, because otherwise they wouldn’t get the staff. When enough schools are academies they won’t need to worry about that.

Gove couldn’t give a damn that the collateral damage here is to real children. Whatever you think about GCSE exams, moving the goalposts in the middle of the game seems a particularly cruel thing to do, especially when the victims are children. So children have been deliberately failed in order for Gove to be able to privatise schools.

In 2011, 1,100 disabled people in the UK died after being declared fit to work by the minions of this vile government. Every time I think they can’t become more depraved and despicable, they do. And the Liberal Democrats just let it keep on happening.

Source used:-
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2012/08/23/by-downgrading-gcse-results-today-michael-gove-plans-to-sell-100s-of-schools/

Strange world innit Ivan, my grandson goes to the local academy here in Chelsea, all the teachers are paid above the average, all the pupils and parents have to sign a reasonable behaviour agreement, the facilities are first class and there are numerous after hours classes covering the full spectrum of courses for those that wish it. The school promotes itself as a science specific academy and is funded by private businesses, church of England and the science museum. If this school is the typical of an "academy" then I would recommend you get round to your local council and march up and down with your placards demanding the same.

If nothing else it will give some an opportunity to dust down their placards for the voting season.

tlttf. Strange (or maybe typical) that, instead of addressing any of the issues in the opening posting, you serve up an anecdote concerning the richest borough in the United Kingdom - Kensington and Chelsea - where the pupils of any type of school are destined to do well.

As I said previously: "At the moment the academies pay the going rate, because otherwise they wouldn’t get the staff. When enough schools are academies they won’t need to worry about that." The only reason that the school you refer to might be paying "above the average" is that the going rate includes what's known as 'London Weighting'.

Once again Ivan your wrong. You copy/paste some general info about a subject you know nothing about, when somebody (helpfully) gives you real information on the subject they automatically receive a minor bollocking backed up (once again) by a perception of an area totally outside of their personal knowledge. To make a sweeping statement as you have regarding "any school are destined to do well" based on your non-knowledge of somewhere you have never been, simply highlights the reasons that I can't subscribe to the "labour luvvy" agenda. In a nutshell your wrong, accept it and move on with life.

Various shades of Government have tried to establish a sensible education system, and it is of course inconceivable that any one of them would have set out to make things worse. But that has been the result. Every four years the old ideas are abandoned and something new takes their place. No wonder other European countries do better for their kids, or that in Britain the sensible course for parents who can afford it, to "go private".

Problem children who have to be put into special schools cost the taxpayer far more than it would have to provide a good education, so perhaps the solution is to pay for many more children to have a private education - because in the long run it is actually cheaper.

Once again Ivan your wrong. You copy/paste some general info about a subject you know nothing about, when somebody (helpfully) gives you real information on the subject they automatically receive a minor bollocking backed up (once again) by a perception of an area totally outside of their personal knowledge. To make a sweeping statement as you have regarding "any school are destined to do well" based on your non-knowledge of somewhere you have never been, simply highlights the reasons that I can't subscribe to the "labour luvvy" agenda. In a nutshell your wrong, accept it and move on with life.

tlttf. Not for the first time on this forum, “you’re wrong” on a number of counts, mister. As the master of copy and paste from MSN days, you’re also a hypocrite.

I know that Kensington and Chelsea is the richest borough in the UK, where the average income was over £100,000 a year back in 2007. You’re wrong to assume that I’ve never been there; I spent ten years going back and forth to the Royal Marsden Hospital.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-477324/Average-income-tops-100-000-Britains-wealthiest-borough.html

So you think I know nothing about education, do you? 23 years of teaching in comprehensive schools might suggest otherwise. So you’re wrong again.

You’re also wrong because my opening post isn’t a copy/paste, but something I wrote myself, although I’ve quoted a source to show from where I obtained my information. It’s a pity that you didn’t read the post and address the issues in it.

What you’ve tried to obfuscate is that Gove is using the nation’s children as pawns in his political agenda. He’s changed the rules so that more state schools are deemed to ‘fail’, and he’s downgraded exam results for the same purpose. Despite having no mandate to do so, the Tories are hell-bent on privatising everything, and Gove is playing his part by fragmenting the state education system. Children who took exams in June have been given lower grades than those who took them in January, but Gove doesn’t care if they suffer, as long as it helps his squalid purpose.

The tragedy is that although we can be reasonably certain of a change of government at the next General Election, children will during that timescale have suffered two or three years' loss of education opportunities.

Which can never be adequately restored for most of them. Gove will have a lot to answer for in 2015

Gove will have a lot to answer for in 2015.

Before the last election, Gove said that a Tory government would insist on all teachers being graduates with 'good degrees' (first or second class honours). He didn't explain how he was going to entice them into a profession which, for most teachers, doesn't pay much above the average national wage. He also didn't explain why infant school teachers need to be quite so academic.

Gove was on Radio 4 this morning saying "we should improve teacher training". Only a couple of weeks ago he was saying that his beloved free schools and academies don't need to hire qualified teachers!

So is Gove an idiot, a hypocrite or just another typical lying Tory git? Take your pick.

My 'pick' would be that Gove is all three - and plenty more besides. In a party which is full to the rafters of nauseating specimens, the little shit Gove ranks as more vomit-inducing than anyone could possibly bear .

If I say that even John Major is preferable, that should give some idea of how deep is my dislike for the other aforementioned rat-like creep.

Not that one wishes to be unduly harsh...

As Gove's new Free McSchool ( free from local authority 'control') Opens...

(guardian.co.uk)

" Good morning children - may I introduce your new cookery master - Mr Chic N. Nugget -what's it to be today, teacher..?"

" I thought we'd do burgers, Ronald..."

Lansley has murdered the NHS. Gove has perverted the exam process and Gideon is plotting to build all over England's green and pleasant land.

We should be able to get this government on a charge of conspiracy to defraud.

Rather than be distracted from the subject by the typical tactic of Tory posters to divert your attention to some anecdote or other, have a read of this extract from an article by David Harris for ‘The New Statesman’:

Is Michael Gove abdicating responsibility for education? The stage is set for the wholesale sell-off of state education.

“I get the sense that Michael Gove sees state education as a millstone around his neck. If you are the secretary of state, you are responsible for what happens in our schools. What if you could sell off this millstone? Business is much easier to blame when things go wrong.

Gove's recent behaviour, washing his hands of any political involvement in the marking down of English grades, or his blaming of ‘officials’ when he reports erroneous figures on playing field sales or the major embarrassment of the ‘Building Schools for the Future’ cancellation debacle, speaks volumes.

But how do you persuade business to take on the running of what should be a state education system? Business won't like the idea of equal pay for teachers, high pension contributions or having to pay for true professionals. Gove needed to de-professionalise education. This he did in word and deed. It became a ‘craft’ (Gove's word) that anybody can do just by copying others. He scrapped its ruling professional body (The General Teaching Council), immediately downgrading teaching to ‘just a job’. He's on course to demolish national pay agreements and advocate locally negotiated pay with academy business sponsors and free schools.

In a masterstroke, he also removed the requirement for academies and free schools to hire qualified teachers (but made sure the news was buried during the Olympic opening ceremony celebrations). The effect is to reduce a once noble profession to ‘just a job’ that anyone can do with a bit of subject knowledge.”

There’s much more, and it’s well worth a read, in order to see how the stage is set for the wholesale sell-off of state education:-
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/michael-gove-abdicating-responsibility-education

Much has been made today of the opening of 55 new 'Free' schools but little has been said of the fact that many state schools are falling about the ears of the pupils and teachers....

the only coverage I saw today was from daybreak
http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=324287

Gove should be asked about whats going to happen to these crumbling schools?

with in my own area there is a school which has been told that it will be totally rebuilt but it will not start until at least 2015, it should be noted that there is a good sized Tory Majority so perhaps it's a case they this government doesn't feel it has to try to hard to get votes........

The parallel is with Lansley's separation of Government responsibility from the NHS.

"Nuffink to do wiv us, Guvnor!"

Labour Life Peer Lord Adonis is publishing a book next week on education reform - 'Education, Education, Education' - which is to be published by Biteback.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Adonis,_Baron_Adonis

EDIT: (Early reviews suggest that the main content is self-congratulatory.)

We are promised a joint announcement tomorrow, Tuesday, by Messrs Gove and Clegg recommending a return to the 1950s style of GCE O-level examination. No doubt they will present excellent reasoning, but it's difficult to stop a traditional tune running through my head ....

Oh, the Grand Old Duke of York
He had ten thousand men
He marched them up to the top of the hill,
then he marched them down again!

I'm a teacher and I love my job.

However, I feel that education gets a rough ride from all directions.

My mother and grandmother were also teachers and a pattern seems to have emerged: education never gets the minister it deserves. For me, this isn't even a partisan issue. Let's consider the offenders during my own teaching career:

Michael Gove: a man with a 'vision' - always something to be feared. Working at a large modern secondary school in a deprived area with FSM well above the national average, my own experience suggests that children of the socio-economic band that I teach are low on the list of priorities.

Ed Balls: an economist out of his depth. I suspect his intentions were good, particularly with his BSF programme. However, he lacked the insight and experience to do any material good or affect any solid change.

Ruth Kelly and Estelle Morris: enough said! At least Morris had the good grace to resign, admitting that she wasn't up to the job - surely a first in this era of professional politicians.

We need an education secretary with the courage to strip the system right back and start again. They need to remember that this about children and their life prospects, not scoring cheap points in the Daily Mail and Mirror.

One final point: I wonder if education is the red-headed step child of politics because children have no vote? Statistically, the group most likely to vote are pensioners. Look at how carefully policies directed at them are thought-out and packaged.

Also, Gove looks like the love child of Pob and Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory, but without their inherent charm or social graces.

Boudica wrote:Also, Gove looks like the love child of Pob and Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory, but without their inherent charm or social graces.

.... and what's he going to do when his good looks fade?

oftenwrong wrote:

Boudica wrote:Also, Gove looks like the love child of Pob and Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory, but without their inherent charm or social graces.

.... and what's he going to do when his good looks fade?

Grow a few chins and become Chancellor of the Exchequer?

The row about exam papers being made more difficult in June than they had been in January has today extracted an explanation from the examining body OFQUAL to the effect that teachers were to blame.

Obviously. It's explanation Number One provided by their computer program in response to any query about anything.

http://news.uk.msn.com/uk/teachers-hit-back-on-over-marking

.... and with one bound, he was free!!

The slimy Gove was caught using his wife's e-mail address to avoid Civil Servants being able to see his communications, at the beginning of this year. He vigorously defended his right to do so, through Lawyers whose bill for their services totted up £35,000 but Gove was nevertheless admonished by the Parliamentary investigators.

How do we know the precise amount? We're paying it. He's not.

When will we ever get rid of Gove?

starlight07 wrote:When will we ever get rid of Gove?

Not sure but Hello anyway .

Any politician willing to stand up and say the education system has been intentionally flawed by Labour deserves a chance at sorting the mess out, children between the ages of 10-20 have been failed (check out your local shops and spot them hanging around). Teachers have been failed by labour allowing bad teachers to keep their jobs and everybody knows that attainment levels sink to the lowest denominator.

Kick it down and start again.

Jsmythe wrote:

starlight07 wrote:When will we ever get rid of Gove?

Not sure but Hello anyway .

Hey you. Nice to see you here too.

tlttf wrote:Any politician willing to stand up and say the education system has been intentionally flawed by Labour deserves a chance at sorting the mess out, children between the ages of 10-20 have been failed (check out your local shops and spot them hanging around). Teachers have been failed by labour allowing bad teachers to keep their jobs and everybody knows that attainment levels sink to the lowest denominator.

Kick it down and start again.

Start from where? Getting rid of GCSEs in favour for the Baccalaureate?

That could be a start star. Any system that allows the majority of the result to be made from a final examination rather than marked on course work works for me.

Compare and contrast:

"Keith Joseph welcomed the move to Education in 1981. He had always wanted the office and relished the challenge which was more intangible and philosophic than the problems of industry. The academic and teaching professions accepted his appointment warily.

They need not have been unduly alarmed. Once again Keith Joseph 's powerful rhetoric was matched by more circumspect action. Whilst in office he saw the merging of the O-level and CSE exams. It was a start towards his aim of a national curriculum and of testing, but he moved warily leaving his successor to build upon his achievement. It was characteristic of his integrity and political naivete that he sought a modest expansion in his science budget by seeking a parental charge for university tuition fees, thus requiring no net increase in public spending. The Tory middle classes were outraged and Joseph was obliged to abandon his plan. Ironically this relatively minor issue left a more indelible mark than Joseph's pioneering work to promote structured teaching in schools and university reform"


http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/1994/dec/12/obituaries


"When Labour won the 1997 general election, Blunkett became education secretary and was tasked with raising school standards to match those of other prosperous countries. Blunkett introduced a number of reforms, including requiring schools to provide children up to age 11 with a daily “literacy hour” and a “numeracy hour” in order to improve basic skills. Blunkett frequently cited his own disability and impoverished background to argue that all children had the potential to succeed and that no school should be allowed to use the fact that its children came from deprived or broken families as an excuse for bad results. Blunkett’s tough strategy was widely praised, although he was not always popular with teachers’ unions."

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/760205/David-Blunkett

tlttf wrote:That could be a start star. Any system that allows the majority of the result to be made from a final examination rather than marked on course work works for me.

I am a school teacher and believe me when I say this that I do find the level of questions on the mathematics GCSE papers very easy compared to what was there on the papers many years ago...I know how the education system has been dumbed down too since the past decade. But I am not in agreement to Gove's idea of the Baccalaureate. Not at all.

In mathematics, coursework has already been ruled out and the GCSE specification was modular or unit based...that modular exam has now become linear, i.e. the pupils shall now give an exam for mathematics at the end of their two years of study.

There are disadvantages for this...reason being is that if the pupils screw up their exams on the day then that's it...they cannot resit their exams.

".... if the pupils screw up their exams on the day then that's it...they cannot resit their exams. "

A system perpetuated in exams set for entrance to many of our Professional bodies.

The RAF has always had "aptitude tests" for pilots, and a failure has to wait four years before re-taking the test because of what is described as "the practice element".

A fundamental consideration which nobody seems to want to address is whether there is any value in constructing exams for the mediocre to pass.

A system perpetuated in exams set for entrance to many of our Professional bodies.

True without a doubt...yet pupils shouldn't be trained for the workforce or as how other professional bodies are.

A fundamental consideration which nobody seems to want to address is whether there is any value in constructing exams for the mediocre to pass.

But the government isn't interested in the pass rate of exams is it? Why should exams only target the few that can easily pass? Besides you don't get a job with a degree in hand. You need ample amounts of experience to be considered by the employer as a suitable candidate.

"You need ample amounts of experience to be considered by the employer as a suitable candidate."

Indeed, thus the current vogue for "interns" who work for nothing so as to have something useful on their CV.

Once again to the disadvantage of those without wealthy parents. Plus ca change.

Breaking News ....

STOP GOve movement succeeds.

http://news.uk.msn.com/uk/gove-in-humiliating-gcse-u-turn-1

small battle lost - not getting too excited - he's still got time to do much more harm

Some breaking news. Gove is still pushing the changes (quite rightly) he's simply decided to keep the same name.

Surely his idea of one exam body would save the government an absolute fortune and be easier to monitor than the multi exam boards at present that set the exams according to their marketing (buy mine and I'll guarantee a pass).

Gove wants one exam board per subject, not just one exam board. It was the Tories in the 1980s who created the present fiasco where boards have been competing against each other for customers, thus creating the 'grade inflation' of exam results.

I just love the way that everyone thinks they are an expert on education just because they went to school once. Gove must rank as probably the worst education secretary this country has ever had. He's just an ignorant hack, placed in government along with Hunt, by the real Prime Minister of this country, Rupert Murdoch.

While politicians squabble, children are losing the opportunity of studying towards a knowable, fixed, goal.

Surely multiple exam boards in each subject is in keeping with the Tory philosophy of competition good...monopoly bad?

Nice to see Gove blaming Europe for his U-Turn.......