The results to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:
Have you noticed/suffered more midges/midge bites than usual this summer?
Yes - 13%
No - 87%
Thanks to all who voted and left comments, if we adjust for those who've noticed fewer, there's probably no change overall, so either it is a very localised phenomenon or it's just me. Which has put my mind at rest.
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Apparently our new PM has floated the idea of selective state secondary schools i.e. "grammar schools". Rejoice! says the Torygraph. Boo! says The Guardian. Inevitably.
So that's this week's Fun Online Poll.
"What should we do to improve standards in secondary education and increase social mobility? (choose all that apply)"
Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.
As to the last option, it sounds a bit socialist-authoritarian but is not without merit. If there were no private schools, then the most demanding/pushy parents would devote their efforts to keeping state school teachers on their toes; it would level the playing field and hence improve social mobility (downwards as well as upwards); and it would save parents a fortune in private school fees (so I have a vested interest in this and is the alternative to education vouchers), which are largely rental payments/an arms race anyway.
Further, in Germany (for example), private education is virtually unheard of (it is for backward children with rich parents), they have selection (into quasi-grammar and secondary modern) and their educational standards are very good.
Meh
3 hours ago
3 comments:
I would say reform local government and let them run schools.
Throwing this out there: restrict grammar school to pupils from state primaries. How can you design an exam that measures the innate talent of kids from two very different systems?
The problem with abolishing private education is that you then get state-funded-private education, where the rich and influential send their children to the good schools and everyone else has to make do with what is left, i.e. the same system as we have now, except entirely instead of partially paid for by the taxpayer. The money the R&Is were paying in school fees will, instead, be paid in inflated land prices in the catchment area of the good schools.
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