Michael Gove has once again proved himself as being possibly the most dangerous man in the government; Gove has been consistently been pursuing his regressive education agenda but has never attracted the same vilification or even attention as figures like Andrew Lansley, Jeremy Hunt and Chris Grayling.
One thing should be made clear from the off: what follows is no kind of endorsement of Michael Gove’s record at the Department for Education, the way that the rhetoric of empowerment is often being used as a mask for centralism, his top-down and hopelessly reactionary plans for the National Curriculum, the increasingly political use of inspections to drive
The occupation against Sussex University outsourcing is in its fifth week and the story of higher education privatisation continues to unfold.
As English universities have become more marketised their advertising budget has risen. Spending on marketing rose by 22% in the run-up to £9k fees and will spiral.
The good society is one where we constantly strive and work for improvement. We will never have that society unless we think ahead, plan and strategise about our future, characteristics lacking in the government machine. The dominant late intervention culture has failed.
At the Fabian Women’s Network Labour conference fringe on Monday October 1st, we asked “How can Labour solve the childcare crisis?” We believe that answering this question is urgent – a position shared by the others contributing to the debate, including the Family and Parenting Institute and the Co-operative Party.
Jamie Oliver. I probably don’t need to write anything else. Just mentioning his name should be enough to start a lengthy conversation. Or rant. Everyone’s heard of him. Some like to stick an expletive in the middle of his name. Many of us seem to have strong views about him, one way or another.
In a few weeks, students paying fees of £9000 a year will start their first term at many English universities. Last Wednesday David Willetts signalled the government’s intention to press ahead with the privatisation of higher education.
Universities are charities.
A while ago, the FT’s education correspondent, Chris Cook, wrote a piece for the FTdata blog throwing up some interesting numbers about the percentage chances of students from disadvantaged backgrounds getting into Oxford.
Any argument for school reform motivated by a sincere desire to increase social mobility deserves to be taken seriously. That’s why the debate started by Ben Mitchell’s advocacy of grammar school expansion is one that belongs on Shifting Grounds.
Feel like you learnt about the Vikings an awful lot at school? Well you probably did. It was that topic teachers just couldn’t resist, even if deep down they knew the questions they posed would be answered like the rehearsal that had gone before.
Ben Mitchell wants to see more grammar schools built and existing ones expanded. He argues that children on free school meals (FSM) do much better there than in comprehensives. So more grammar school places would mean a better deal for poorer children.
There can be few issues that polarise so violently or predictably, but discussion on the merits or otherwise of grammar schools is certainly up there. Almost universally condemned by the left, and splitting the right.
The rationale behind its opponents states that its policy of selection by academic ability hands grammar schools an unfair advantage.
It’s four o’clock on a Sunday in Bath and the long-promised sun has finally come out. I’ve just finished running a training weekend for fifteen adults. The participants are a diverse bunch; a solicitor, an estate agent, a retired teacher, a former employee of Goldman Sachs. There’s even a telecoms entrepreneur who’s just sold his own business.
Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg have both used this week to fire the starting gun on a debate over social mobility. Both, for different reasons, want to push past a focus on tuition fees.
As the tide of academies rises, the role of local education authorities in the democratic accountability of our schools recedes.
With times hard for families as it is, rising food and fuel bills, simultaneously made worse by cuts to housing benefit, tax credits and the looming spectre of unemployment, the Conservative-led government is again piling on the pressure with the threat of withdrawal of child benefit payments for families of persistent truants.