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...

Because Abra1d there are such a thing as equality laws.
Because disabled children not only deserve an equal playing field, they are entitled to one.

Because low expectations of disabled children = low attainment
Because my son is capable of getting a handful of GCSEs with the correct support, this doesnt mean anyone is going to do it for him. It means that he can achieve and meet his potential.

That is why.

Thanks, good Guardian link.

Has some info on MPs' pension stoo, seemimgly in repsonse to obvious public interest on twitter feeds, which are increasingly difficult for establishment mainstream media to ignore.

'MPs' pensions
Several people on Twitter have asked about MPs' pensions and how they compare. The MPs scheme is a funded scheme, unlike the NHS scheme - that means it can only pay out money that has been paid in. It is not quite a final salary scheme - benefits are accrued each year according to how much the member is earning them. For example, they might earn 1/60 of a normal MP's salary one year, and 1/60 of a minister's salary the next.

Contributions went up in April 2012, as with the other schemes, and are based on accrual rates which the MP can choose. An MP who chooses to accrue benefits at 1/40 their salary will contribute 13.75% of salary, at 1/50 they pay 9.75% of salary and at 1/60 they pay 7.75%. In 2010 MPs were paid just over £65,000, so that would suggest MPs are paying less for their pensions than doctors.'

I don't fully understand it, but it doesn't seem as bad as I thought it would be.

Seeing MrsDeVere's posts always cheers me up.

The Guardian would be terribly upset at your view of them as an Establishment Organ, claig. They think they are for the people.

The Daily Mail is for control of the great unwashed through manipulation ie inducing Guilt/Witchunts (see feckless scroungers on the dole costing us all a fortune, disgusting career women who have had the temerity to reproduce, etc etc)

MPs are only guaranteed jobs for a maximum of 5 years at a time. As opposed to most public sector jobs which are jobs with a few exceptions.

Maybe if public sector people had to reapply for their jobs every 5 years we might get a better quality of public servant?

Josephine - what is your problem with public 'servants'?

Josephine when an MP loses their seat through incompetence, uselessness or general ignorance usually they are given a severance package of approximately £12,000. Not many people get that kind of money for effectively being sacked (which is what they are when the electorate decide they're not doing their job properly)

Channel 4 News, which is also very good, has exam shake-up as number 1 item. I felt that the quality news such as Newsnight and Channel 4 News would have that as number 1.

I think you'll find the BBC 10 o'clock news have pricked up their ears now Clegg is weighing in to the argument from Brazil. He's not happy. It could turn in to a bit of a political bun fight.

Whatever spin doctor came up with this has served an ace. This'll be batted about for days, and everything else will fade into the background.

Just heard on Channel 4 that Moodys might be downgrading some British banks. That is not good news. O levels will be better news.

I was in the first year of GCSEs it was a complete mess.

If we are going back to 'O' levels then I suspect that we will also be going back to the bell curve.

What fun.

Yes Claig although I think to be fair the downgrade has been on the burner for ages.

Yes, apparently so. I don't spend enough time keeping up with the news in detail, I just listen to headlines, so I didn't know.

Apparently so, when the French downgrade happened, the city traders were trading assuming the banks had already been downgraded for months so it was just a matter of it being "official".

Does anyone have figures for how many children get a lower grade than C in Maths and English GCSE?

'Because my son is capable of getting a handful of GCSEs with the correct support, this doesnt mean anyone is going to do it for him. It means that he can achieve and meet his potential.'

All well and good, and I wish him well. But why does that mean that other kids can't study more challenging O levels and achieve and meet their potential?

Yes, it's amazing that Labour didn't make political capital out of it and tell the public. Is there an opposition or is everyone in it together? It's not as if it would damage the country, since the city traders already knew.

2010 results

Lord Adonis on Channel 4 News kept banging on about how we should expect everyone to be able to get a C at GCSE. But to me it seemed that he was missing the point that too many people children were getting As and A*s.

Yes, they can do that by doing GCSEs.
I did Olevels. They really are nothing to get excited about.
You need a good memory and/or revision skills and the ability not to freak out under exam stress.
You can spend pretty much the whole year dicking about and if you are lucky still pass.

No coursework means no need to keep up with the subject throughout the year.
How exactly does that help anyone reach their potential?

Margaret Thatchers government brought in GCSEs with good reasons. all children could do the same exam - get graded on the same scale - regardless which school they went to.

Now i agree if people want to say there has been grade inflation and loss of value - but i really don't think this is the solution. I think this is yet more change in a system that needs to stay the same for two minutes in order to drive real improvement.

Gove i think was a very bad choice as education minister - they must have had someone who could have done a better job than this. I was a bit in two minds after the 'King James bible thing' (does he not know bible quotations are available on-line at fingertips?) but this really just beggars belief and looks like something else that will be backed down on...

Thanks, good link. If I understand it right, it looks like about 16% get a grade less than C in maths and a bit less in English. I wonder how that compares to O level days.

Although i agree about coursework - depending on subject (art, CDT, HE obv require coursework of some kind)

it was brought in because they thought it would favour state pupils. they were wrong. It gives public school more of an advantage.

I agree in principle that the way O levels were conducted mean you could dick about all year and still get a pass if you had a good memory, but teachers say plagiarism is rife with coursework sections of GCSEs. I know there are programmes that can detect work lifted directly from websites, but how many schools use them?

It never ceases to amaze me that those most in favour of a return to the "Good Old Days" always assume that their own DC will benefit.

Are you absolutely certain your children are in the top 20% ability band? What sort of choices will they have under Gove's regime if they aren't?