Westminstenders: PreGrades (Minority Report comes to the UK)

[RedToothBrush]

In Aug 2020, London, DC's prototype 'PreGrades' launched from the education department stops plebs before they go to university, reducing the social mobility rate to zero percent. Social mobility is predicted using specialized mutated humans, called "Teachers", who "predict" grades by marking shit lots of course work and exams over a period of years. Would-be social climbers are knocked down in a computer algorithm which distorts reality and hits the disadvantaged hardest. Central government is on the verge of adopting the controversial program nationwide by applying it in all departments from the DWP, the Home Office, the Department of Health and the Department of Justice to predict benefit fraud, getting sick asylum seeking and crime before it occurs.

DC's vision of the future is based on excellence being genetically ingrained into the elite but he must sell this vision to the unsuspecting public in a series of public votes which rely on the idea of the 'undeserving'. Little do they know that they too will be the victims of this plan until a mysterious bug appears and only the wealthy and well connected are able to get hold of adequate PPE and they are no longer able to buy bog roll nor retire to Spain as they had previously and endless queues for pizza form near Kent.

The risk for middle-aged teachers if they catch COVID is not high in absolute terms,
but doubles their normal risk of death; so would be their single greatest risk

• hence their natural wish for SD and masks to avoid catching it in the first place

It is unfair to imply they are nervous people who just need reassurance - they want effective, practical measures to reduce risk in their workplace

Assessing the Age Specificity of Infection Fatality Rates for COVID-19: Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis, and Public Policy Implications

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.23.20160895v3.full.pdf

middle-aged adults, for whom the infection fatality rate is more than 50 times greater than the annualized risk of a fatal automobile accident"

What makes me really sad about that survey is that we could have used the pandemic to reflect on education and the treadmill of assessments and exams and the need to 'succeed'. Instead we have a government who both education and who are insisting our (already unhappy) 15 year olds are drilled through the same exams next year, despite everything because we can't measure success without terminal exams.

I don't think it is a coincidence that anxiety levels of 13-14 years olds dropped during lockdown.

It's not always schools per se that create the stress but it is certainly the system and we now have a fair proportion of school leaders who have never known another way.

Sigh.

Completely agree with you piggy.

I think the wheels will spectacularly fall off education this year...... pandemic not under control .... schools won't be back full time for the whole year - and off course huge chunk of education missed last year by vast majority of the country. No attempt to introduce standardised internal assessment..... yet GSCE and "a"levels must happen..... what could possibly go wrong ....😳

I just put this on the numbers thread but actually think the Westministenders might find it fascinating:

www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/08/27/most-approve-of-national-response-to-covid-19-in-14-advanced-economies/

I've just spent a few days in a seaside resort in the north of England.

Mask wearing was pretty good.
Lots of kids were wearing very cool "character" ones.
Social distancing was not great / not bad
but
fuck me
the obesity and ill health
SCARY