Gove does it again!

[longfingernails]

An end to dumbed down GCSEs, and a return to the O-Level!

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2162369/Return-O-Level-Gove-shake-biggest-revolution-education-30-years.html

He truly is a simply unbelievable reformer. It is so refreshing to have someone who really cares about education, putting pupils first, and not caring about whether idiot teaching unions bleat.

No doubt we will have Christine Blower ineffectually defending the ludicrous notion that standards in British secondary education have "improved" year on year on year despite international evidence. Watching the militant unions get their comeuppance - yet again! - is a delightful little bonus...

With this fuckwit Government, nothing would surprise me.

From trumpeting with excitement at the return of O levels, you've now completely changed your tune.

Again, no media knowledge...both Tory newsheets the Telegraph and the Mail would like nothing better than to rubbish the "greedy" doctors on their front pages, but tickling their aspirational readers' fancies (we're all joining the elite with our wonderful O levels, just like granny) is even more attractive.

As the line they are supposed to take is that they hate the NHS for taking too much of their proprietors tax money and helping the proles live longer than they should, they aren't being distracted by a cod story...they are chasing their desired audience.

The Guardian is read by a lot of teachers who will be pissed off at more Government interference.;

"Also, people who were at school in the 1950s can, invariably, read, write, spell and do basic maths."

I'm baffled as to where you get that idea. Run a mail order company and type in orders for a while. You'll find that Ken/Shirley/Frank make just as many spelling errors and I reckon more arithmetical errors than Sophie/James/Katie.

(Clearly you can't assess people's age purely from name and handwriting style but over the mass of orders it is quite easy to guess who is an older customer and who a 20something.)

Gove is a COCK.
He has now excluded my DS2 from getting any meaningful qualfications.
He could cope with GCSEs. You can be supported with course work.

He has no chance with o levels. NONE.

What is the big deal about sodding Olevels anyway? I have o levels. You sod about all year and if you are good at exams you get your certificate.

Hmmm, currently O levels is top on Newsnight.

'Great - until it's your child confined to the CSE equivalent. Or who suffers from severe hay fever / another illness so can't perform as well on the day of the exam. '

I had severe hay fever and took my O levels in 1982 with only sleep-inducing Piriton available so I either sneezed or felt sleepy during exams. That's life, isn't it?

I am glad about this change. Some of the GCSE content is a joke.

As for doctors: could someone tell me why I someone whose AVERAGE pension is £48,000 a year is not available today in surgery? Because I think it is outrageous.

And I'm afraid the point about children being supported during course work is exactly the problem. If everyone can get the qualification, with support, there's no point in having the qualification, is there? Because the child who can only achieve them with support and course work has the same qualification as the high-flyer who is very good at the subject. It tells you nothing about the two candidates and their differences.

Because Abra1d, it's what was promised to them when they busted a gut doing a 5 year med degree, when they were working 100 hour weeks as junior doctors and the sum isn't really the point is it? You can't take away what someone has been promised for years and years of their working life. If you focus on the amount alone, you sound like you're jealous rather than making a political point.

'From trumpeting with excitement at the return of O levels, you've now completely changed your tune.'

I agrre on this one, I have been taken in hook, line and stinker. I didn't think it through, I was pleased that standards were going higher, but it doesn't make sense to bring back a divisive qualification system. It is much better to fix the one we currently have.

I haven't read the Mail's propaganda about doctors over teh last few days and I bet lots of Mail readers have skipped it to. We know the game enough to understand when information is duff. But the Mail know that New Labour's dumbing down is like a red rag to the Daily Mail and is bound to get them fired up and back on side with teh government. As one Daily Mail commenter said "this week the Tories are back" - but that commenter has been tricked too.

What was promised to me when I took out my private pensions twenty-plus years ago was that my dividends wouldn't be taxed.

First thing Gordon Brown did was tax the dividends in my pension.

We have all had to go through this; doctors are no different and are in a considerably better financial position than the rest of us.

I'm not surprised, headfairy...

'Hmmm, currently O levels is top on Newsnight.'

Knew it. Never worked in the media or newsapers but can spot some aspects of the game.

claig 1 out of three ain't bad :o

But headfairy, that's the only one that counts. All the rest are just fish and chip wrapping paper. The Daily Mail, the Guardian and Newsnight are the only 3 that count.

Abra1d I hear these arguments time and time again, "I don't have a good pension therefore no one should". It really is just envy. The fact that the private sector are shite at making pension provisions for their employees is not a good enough argument for scrapping public sector pensions. We are facing a massive pension timebomb, massive. Huge. You think old age poverty is a problem now? It'll be ten times worse in 30/40/50 years time.

Claig, stop beating yourself up. Yes, this may have been a convenient moment to break this story but I do work in the media and I'm as sure as I can be it's going to happen. Yes, it's an idea at the moment, and will need to go through green paper / white paper / passage of bill etc but the story was detailed and said implementation before the next election. As far as I can see that means it's a goer.

Blimey Claig, I'll go home now then :o

longtalljosie aren't they talking about the first exams being sat in 2016? That's after the next general election.

As an aside, when I heard what the pension for a doctor was, I immediately googled to find out what the pension for an MP was, since none of our media seem to have informed us of that.

If they asked Daily Mail readers who they think deserves a pension of £68,000 more, then I think we know what the result would be hands down, which is probably why the Daily Mail didn't give us all the facts.

'Blimey Claig, I'll go home now then'

OK, there are some other ones too

Claig oh God, the MPs pension is absolutely amazing. Gold plated and needless to say untouchable.

I wonder if MPs ever lost their final salary scheme, whether we'd ever see them striking. Marching on Whitehall... to an empty chamber :o

Exactly. I don't know any of teh ins and outs about how long they need to be elected for before they can claim them etc., but I can just imagine.

Imagine if the Guardian told us the facts and told us how many hours doctors work and how many lives they save and how many years they train and how they never complain and at what age they are expected to retire. Then it would be a different story. But of course, the Guardian won't do that and nor will Newsnight.

Imagine if they told us of the doctors' stress and their high rates of alcoholism and the effect on their own health. Then there would be sympathy for the doctors. But of course, none of them will do that either.

Claig You seem very down on The Guardian especially as you said it was one of only 3 sources of news that counted :o

Many doctors have added comments on here... always good to hear it straight from the horses mouth

No, I like the Guardian and I like Newsnight and I like the Daily Mail, but I think that the Guardian and the BBC are establishment organs, and the Daily Mail slightly less, being more for the people. I know that the Guardian told its readers that it "enthusiastically" backed Nick Clegg, so I don't expect the Guardian to fully back the doctors or the people.