Is Rishi Sunak utterly thick?

[noblegiraffe]

Today he actually went ahead and announced his plans for everyone studying maths till 18.

And all everyone commenting on this on the news or social media has been saying today is "but this is mad because there aren't enough maths teachers to teach the qualifications we already have".

And teachers including maths teachers, are going on strike again next week because the government refuses to pay them properly. The government also failed to meet its maths teacher trainee recruitment target last year and will again this year.

This announcement just gives everyone the wonderful opportunity to point these governmental failings again and again.

Why the fuck would anyone with any political sense announce a policy that cannot happen and gives everyone the opportunity to point out that it can't happen because the government are shit?

Just why?

Exactly. He doesn't actually care about the maths teaching. He cares how it looks politically. Doesn't matter at all that there is a shortage of maths teachers because that's not the purpose of this plan.

What I don’t get is what is the point of maths until 18yo?

if it’s taught well to age 16 then there’s no further need of maths for people who aren’t planning careers which need further maths. I mean gcse does algebra, trigonometry, etc which is way more than I’ve ever needed in day to day life. The issue is some people are finishing atb16yo without a sufficient grasp of fundamental maths, the sort of day to day useful maths. That’s what wants sorting.

😂

😆

Of course and he has done the basics as part of his course but the difference is, he’s not being made to sit in a classroom studying subjects he hates/can’t do all day long. No one is saying we don’t need the basics but changing learning so it can appeal to a wider range of people is more appropriate than just a blanket message of ‘everyone must do maths until 18 now’. It will be a worrying statement for some kids and their parents. Most teenagers are eager to get to 16 to make a choice about what they actually do want to learn and we shouldn’t be taking that away from them and extending some people’s dislike for education.

Surely we can count on Rishi? 😅

He wants the job to impress his FIL as it gives him bragging rights. It’s for the status, chances to influence policy which benefit his family and friends and post role opportunities not the money.

Stops everyone noticing his wife is a big stakeholder in one of the SIX (randomly chosen?) private companies set to to cash in on benefit from the previous "BIG FRONT PAGE NEWS" announcement about childcare and that he failed to declare this interest

Why would Britain try to compete with mathsy countries anyway? We punch massively above our weight in the arts.

I’m certain he knows not all schools are like Winchester College. This isn’t about the schools at all. I suspect a ‘tech solution’ which benefits his friends and family will be pushed out. This is another chance to raid the tax payers piggy bank.

He's a dick. Why not focus on the problems in schools, to 16. Twat.

Why are they so flippin' greedy? They have all the money they could ever need, yet he so crassly bungs his wife even more.

It can happen. We would do well, on an almost immediate basis to transition our society to a state where basic maths and programming are commonplace adult skills on the level of catching a bus or driving a car.

Maths can be learnt and taught much more efficiently than it is, step one is to get online courses, lectures and demonstrations out to everyone, to have people ready to deliver help where it is needed, to boil that help down to supplementary course materials, and rinse/repeat until most people can get to A level without very many hours of human teaching support.

The teaching unions are not necessarily qualified to decide how efficiently this can be delivered, if the last few years are anything to go by: for every maths teacher that twatted around unable to work zoom and eventually disappeared up their own backside during lockdown, fifty people saved their children's exams or upped their own skills with something like khan academy.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Yes, because there’s a big cupboard full of science teachers just sitting round doing nothing 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Yes, spare science teachers, some videos and an app. All the kids will definitely, 100%, do that. Definitely.

But how it looks politically has been a particularly dire round of interviews and write-ups.

I was thinking about the comparison to the childcare announcement. That's a good one because it has the similar problem that there aren't anywhere near enough childminders to support it. However I think the pushback on that wasn't nearly as strong because the lack of childminders hasn't been recently highlighted by strike action. People lost interest more when they found out it wasn't going to happen till after the next election.

BUT that policy was popular. Politically, it looked good to new parents who are basically fucked by childcare costs and so was welcome news. And also politically it was savvy because it stole a Labour policy that was going to be one of their big plans going into the general election.

Who exactly is this policy appealing to politically? It's mostly met with 'urgh, I hated maths, best moment of my life was never having to study it again after GCSE' or 'what's the point in that?' And then 'but we don't have enough maths teachers, what's he on about?' Who is this good news for? Who is saying 'oh thank god, I'll now vote Tory'?

And here comes Tory HQ to start selling us the benefits of online maths teaching, ahead of the app one of their chums is building, being rolled out at great cost to the tax payer. I wonder if the Sunak’s have shares in the Khan academy seeing as it’s been mentioned?

@ConcordeOoter The latest Tory Bot.

If 50 parents per maths teacher really did improve their children's learning during lockdown, why are we facing the one of the weakest cohorts of y11s sitting exams this summer? Because you're chatting shit.

Maths is not the same as sums.

Talking of Rishi's lack of political nous, here's another example.

I mean, has he not watched The Thick of It? Liam Bentley?

I assume this. Be taught online using excellent material… and tell the teacher unions they can have more of the same if they like.

whatever you think of the policy - it doesn’t demonstrate Thick

He's correct, we do need better educated populace with maths etc

A populace capable of realising what a devious shit he is would be a start.

Or a populace more interested with helping to build a more better and improved society, rather than who the latest celeb is dating who etc

Like half of MN and social media haven’t been complaining how damaged their child’s education has been by schools being closed and having to rely on remote learning.

Tbf I don’t think it demonstrates he’s thick. It’s just an illustration of how thick he and the government think the electorate are. Unusually they may have miscalculated this one.

Give the majority, football, TV, films ect they are easily distracted ect