This government still doesn't give a shit about schools or your kids

[noblegiraffe]

I've posted before about this government's catalogue of failure when it comes to our children and schools and unfortunately it's still going on.

Sir Kevan Collins, the government- appointed schools catch-up tsar has just resigned over their complete failure to accept his recommendations and their pitiful offer of a programme worth only one tenth of what he said would be necessary to alleviate the impact of the pandemic on children's education. www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-57335558

Holland are spending £2500 per child for their catch-up programme, the US £1600. How much do you think the Tories value our children? It works out at £50 per head, and some of the proposed 1.4 billion is going on teacher training rather than tutoring initiatives so won't have an impact for years.

For the much vaunted national tutoring programme, have the government hired experts to provide this? No, according to Sam Freedman, former education advisor to Michael Gove "The DfE have also ballsed up the procurement of the National Tutoring Programme by scoring quality too low vs price so it's going to be run by a Dutch outsourcing firm called Randstad. They undercut all the orgs who actually understanding tutoring. So a lot of the high quality UK charities and organisations providing support to the tutoring programme will now likely pull out. Proper shitshow."

At the same time they have been cladding new and refurbished schools in Grenfell-style cladding www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/may/30/dozens-of-new-school-buildings-in-england-have-combustible-insulation, and have rejected calls from fire safety experts to install sprinklers in new school buildings. www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-57335558

In January, Johnson unexpectedly announced the cancellation of exams for Y11 and Y13. There was no plan for what would replace them and the buck was passed to Ofqual. By March, Ofqual admitted that they had no idea what to do, and so it fell to teachers and individual schools to set, mark and grade GCSEs and A-levels - tasks normally done by exam boards who are still charging exam entry fees this year for doing what appears to be very little. Scotland is paying teachers £400 each for this extra work, England is, of course, paying nothing. Parents are reportedly already gearing up to appeal teacher assessed grades while the government dodges the blame for the impending fiasco.

As I have posted about before, the government have cut Pupil Premium funding by millions, so in practical terms the most disadvantaged children now receive less per pupil than in previous years when there wasn't a pandemic. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4227538-See-how-much-the-government-has-just-cut-free-school-meal-funding-by-in-your-area

And on top of everything else...GAVIN WILLIAMSON IS STILL ED SEC. It's inexplicable, he is widely regarded as completely useless and yet while others involved in education resign around him, he gets to keep his job.

YABU: This government really cares about education and children

YANBU: This government do not give a shit. Not just incompetence, they really don't care.

But let’s not forget Gav has been focussed on the important things like getting rid of the terminology around exclusions and reintroducing the language of expulsion and suspension. I mean that is obviously priority no 1 in a pandemic!

@Clavinova

To just about reverse the 8% cuts in spending per pupil since 2009 is a positive turn around?

Yes - I would say so.

Okay. To use a clearer metaphor, imagine that the education system is a human body.

Option one - what the Government has done.
13 years ago, someone starting making cuts on your leg. They've continued to do that for 13 years. Now they've decided to stop. They aren't cutting anymore but your leg is heavily damaged and needs huge treatment or it risks being lost.

Option two - the Government addressing the issue with the now needed funding increase..
Someone has been cutting but has stopped now and has realised there is a huge problem. They've brought the doctor over and you're now getting treatment.

Option 3 - the Government had never underfunded in the first place.
Your leg continued to be fine.

It doesn't seem all that positive now in relative terms.

This report shows just how much spending has been cut on preventive services for families. Schools are on the front line when it comes to helping families and dealing with children’s mental health and wellbeing

Schools are now required to provide a huge number of services that were previously provided by funded projects such as sure start. We’re doing more, after over a decade of cuts, and we’re supposed to be happy with returning to funding levels from 13 years ago?

What is ridiculous is that the pupils haven't necessarily "missed" anything except for what they're trained to be tested on

Sir Kevan's proposals which were rejected included proposals to re-engage with sports, music and the arts.

What's likely now is that a few kids will be taken out of sports, music and arts lessons to do a bit of tutoring provided by some cut-price Dutch company.

With very little fanfare, in October 2020 they cut teacher training funding right down. I'd be shocked if those cuts were even restored let alone improved upon. They don't care about retention and they barely care about training.

Now if they wanted to train more teachers in order to have more classes (and therefore smaller classe) I'm all for it. However that would include building more classrooms onto schools, wouldn't it?

Iamnotthe1
Okay. To use a clearer metaphor...

I don't need a clearer metaphor - Boris Johnson's government have reversed the cuts made under David Cameron - still sounds like a positive turn around to me.

I think the only way to change 'government' is to join it; but who really wants to do that? Not many, so we get 'governed' by those who will go through the experience of....

.....the constant criticism, from the sidelines, I wouldn't do it, would you?

Viciouslybashed, the thing is, we are sticking with our qualifications-based system - and the 'missing out' is unequally distributed.

It's all very well saying, 'Well, it's all nonsense. We should move away from children being stuffed full of this, that and the other and forced to jump through the hoops of exams ... This idea of them having 'missed out' is nonsense,' but, sadly, the Revolution hasn't happened.

In we must go.

So it really does matter that poorer children now have an even greater handicap.

Boris Johnson's government have reversed the cuts made under David Cameron

😂 you're acting like you didn't vote for both of them!

If the training budget is for new teachers, unfortunately in many areas, they just won't get enough takers. There has been a longstanding teacher shortage in our area, I can only envisage this will get worse. The pay is just not enough for 1) the job and unpaid hours considering we're in an area with enough jobs that pay much more for less input 2) the cost of living here.

100% agree. They are an absolute effing disgrace.

The Tories just about reverse the cuts made by Tories

you're acting like you didn't vote for both of them!

You should have voted for the other bloke - the one in the raincoat.

@Clavinova

Iamnotthe1 Okay. To use a clearer metaphor...

I don't need a clearer metaphor - Boris Johnson's government have reversed the cuts made under David Cameron - still sounds like a positive turn around to me.

Without addressing the damage and ongoing problems those cuts caused. At best, it's stupidly ignorant and, at worst, it's willfully negligent.

To be clear I absolutely do think money needs to be spent on schools but I was rather feeling that the narrative about gaps etc were kind of being used this past year to kick the teaching professionals, which has been a common theme all over the place. And then the amount it wS saying it amounted to I thought it was more bollocks to set up the profession.

Who is the one in the raincoat? It is very childish not to use names.

You should have voted for the other bloke - the one in the raincoat

Genuinely don't know what you're talking about here, Clav, but I do know that for the last decade you have defended every shitty Tory policy in education going. So to try to disassociate this shitty Tory policy of underfunding schools from all the previously shitty Tory policies of underfunding schools and trying to make out it's a good thing just won't wash.

I think the resignation suggests the gaps are real and the inequality a scandal, viciouslybashed.

I suspect you're correct in thinking teachers/schools will end up being blamed, definitely in the coming years, as people forget - so we're going to have to work very hard not to let that happen.

I do wonder how all this is going to play into the 'levelling up' nonsense. My theory is that 'levelling-up' is going to be targeted at older voters. Working-age people, parents, children (the groups who are hit very hard by austerity and other Conservative policies) can go whistle.

@thecatfromjapan

Viciouslybashed, the thing is, we are sticking with our qualifications-based system - and the 'missing out' is unequally distributed.

It's all very well saying, 'Well, it's all nonsense. We should move away from children being stuffed full of this, that and the other and forced to jump through the hoops of exams ... This idea of them having 'missed out' is nonsense,' but, sadly, the Revolution hasn't happened.

In we must go.

So it really does matter that poorer children now have an even greater handicap.

You are right.

@Clavinova

Iamnotthe1 Okay. To use a clearer metaphor...

I don't need a clearer metaphor - Boris Johnson's government have reversed the cuts made under David Cameron - still sounds like a positive turn around to me.

Reversing the cuts doesn’t even cover the increases we’ve had to make to teachers’ penions or NI contributions, or the Appreticeship levy. None of that money will actually result in improvements to education - many schools are in a position where they can’t afford their teachers as they progress up the pay scale but can’t make them redundant as they a) can’t afford the redundancy cost, and b) it’s not a redundancy as the class still needs a teacher!

Our school has hit the minimum funding guarantee several years in a row. Our teachers are on their knees, leaving in droves and we are dealing with unsustainable numbers of pupils with real issues.

I think the resignation suggests the gaps are real and the inequality a scandal

Well schools were closed and we know that the government didn't manage to get laptops to disadvantaged kids for months, and in some cases they didn't arrive until schools reopened in March 2021. The numbers allocated were also far, far fewer than actually required.

If learning was for the most part computer-based, then those children were massively disadvantaged.

It's no good saying, either, that they should have gone to school as 'vulnerable' as we have to deal with what actually happened, not what should have happened.

It's just disgusting how little investment there is in schools and education. I can't see anything ever changing whilst the tories are in charge.

Who is the one in the raincoat? It is very childish not to use names.

Jeremy Corbyn of course, and no more childish than "Gav" and "the great poet Stormzy" I would say.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/corbyn-s-coat-tells-you-everything-about-him-8j200bjj8
inews.co.uk/news/politics/jeremy-corbyns-coat-armistice-day-service-cenotaph-220847

I genuinely did not know who you meant clav. Gav is at least a clue to his name and is part of his name. No idea why you are now going on about Stormzy, or why Corbyn is relevant. Plenty of people did vote for him. I did. Johnson's government is not of my choosing.