Wednesday 11 December 2013

Wilshaw and Gove blaming 'luck' and 'mediocrity'


1. 'Mediocre' teachers

When the people who run education start blaming 'mediocre' teachers, it's amazing that journalists seem incapable of asking these people who run education why they assume that the way they're 'managing' or running education is so un-mediocre, or so bloody brilliant? We have a structure of education now which is dependent on one person, the secretary of state. This person has the power to open and close schools, devise curricula, implement exam systems without any of the old checks and balances in place once state education was first created. So if there are 'mediocre' bits of the system, then surely now with one-man one-rule system that'll be the fault of the boss, won't it? As of the setting up of this system, it's no longer a collective problem. It's his.

2. Luck of the draw

And Wilshaw going on about the 'luck' of who you get determining how good your education is, leaves out the matter that he rules over a system which is now based on schools competing against each other...so there'll always be losers, who get less funding, and end up with more excluded pupils etc etc. It's his system that has given up on the notion of universal provision in spite of all their chat about giving everyone an equal chance...