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Politics

Gove does it again!

214 replies

longfingernails · 21/06/2012 00:17

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...

OP posts:
claig · 22/06/2012 14:55

The clue is in the name - the good old days, not the bad old days of New Labour. The good old days, that Daily Mail readers and the people in their droves speak about wistfully in pubs and clubs up and down the land. The days their parents told them about, and of which they listened to in awe, the days of Tory governments, warm beer and hot buns, the days whose return they have so patiently longed for.

Why revoution? Because a revolution ovethrows tyranny - the tyranny of dumbing down, the tyranny of mediocrity, the tyranny of the bad old days and their wrong and wicked ways.

The people had grown weary, they thought the good old days were never to return. All they could do was read about them in the pages of the Daily Mail. The progressives in their palaces, paid for from the public purse, surrounded by moats and duck houses, laughed at the public. They said "we have passed the tipping point", there will be no turning back, the 'catastrophic' dumbing down is here to stay, the good old days will never again see the light of day.

But like Icarus before them, they flew way too high, they thought they had saved the world and that they owned the sky, they gave the people little and greedily took the greatest share of the pie.

But they had counted their chickens before they had hatched, they thought they would never agains see the like of the Thatch. They counted their pennies and of them there were many, but they failed to count on one thing, that was a minister called Michael Gove, a secret Tory treasure trove. He strove to overturn injustice, he drove dragons from their den, Robin Hood pales into insignificance, to say nothing of his Merry Men.

Gove's motto is 'carpe diem', we don't yet know how all this will end, but we know that the Daily Mail reader is cheering, thinking that the good old days may yet return, the decades of dumbing down are about to end, and the country is on the mend.

claig · 22/06/2012 15:18

Then again, it is more likely that the good long-suffering Daily Mail reader has once again been tricked, and that the good old days may remain a distant memory.

herhonesty · 22/06/2012 15:26

yup. the good long suffering daily mail reader. i forgot about them. a true barometer of public feeling, the bell weather of revolutionary thought, in fact, the arbiter of all things the british really need, like warm beer and hot buns.

snort. love you claig, you've made me laugh a lot!!

claig · 22/06/2012 15:37

Remember, there is many a truth told in jest, and jokes about New Labour are always the best Wink

headfairy · 22/06/2012 15:42

Oh yeah, the good old days. My dad looks back at ww2 with such affection. The camaraderie, the pulling together, the possibility of dying every night. The cricket on the green, picnics under oak trees and the rationing. The pollution, no NHS and the lack of opportunities for women, ethnic minorities, disabled people. Oh I do wish we could go back to the good old days when the elite rode roughshod over everyone else because we were just the ill educated unwashed and they were the elite because their families got rich on the slave trade Hmm

EdgarAllenPimms · 22/06/2012 16:35

I seriously think Gove has canned any credibility he may have had with this one.

where was the consultation? is this in response to some report? They have denied they are going to re-create grammar schools - so how is this going to work within comprehensives (bearing in mind minor difficulties like timetabling, resources, etc) ...some schools can only run one class for each GCSE! How can you run two or more?

the system isn't set up to support this!!

aside from the fact i think it represents a massive leap backwards in terms of equality of opportunity (as at least with GCSEs you got the same qualification - with A-C theoretically being O level equivalent and d-onwards being CSEs.)

We Don't Need another change of the System! Just fix the broken bits of the current system!!

although i agree totally that they have got easy, our local school still only gets 32% to get 5 grades A-C - that's a problem. Some kids no doubt start and finish the school illiterate and innumerate. That's a real problem. Mucking with the system again helps the teachers at that school not one tiny bit. especially as perhaps the one kid who could get an A will now have to take a totally different exam to the rest of the class for which they are unlikely to be prepared as it won't even be on the same Syllabus!!!

ARRRRRRRGGGGHHHH!

breadandbutterfly · 22/06/2012 17:01

claig, you do make me laugh. mumsnet needs more people's poets...even ones who think that 'progressives' are the 'real' enemy of the people. Maybe especially those...

I feel the urge to write in verse.

Maybe Gove can make primary schoolchildren role learn my witterings. Grin

breadandbutterfly · 22/06/2012 17:01

roTe learn

amicissimma · 22/06/2012 17:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MammaBrussels · 22/06/2012 19:18

If we want a world class education system we need to raise the status of teachers in society. The Economist ran this article a couple of years ago examining the strengths of the Finnish system. We need high quality teachers who are treated as PROFESSIONALS, they need continuing support and training. We need more money and support for students with AEN. How is going back to O levels going to help?

I can't see high quality graduates being attracted to teaching. Teachers are sadly treated like shit by parents and children and held in contempt by the government and right wing press. There are no resources for training. I'm not working in the UK now so I don't feel I can comment on AEN provision, let's just say I wouldn't be surprised if the cuts were hitting hardest in this area.

claig · 22/06/2012 20:37

MammaBrussels, I am sceptical od articles in the Economist, particularly if they mention McKinsey. There are so many experts, management consultants - Jacks of all trades, and master of none - offering us solutions on how things should be done. Teenage scribblers, PPEs from Oxford and MBAs from Harvard tell us the answers, but have never spent years in a classroom or on a hospital ward.

The Singaporeans and Finns don't need McKinsey to tell them how things should be done. They can save their money and spend it on books and teachers instead.

We already know where the conclusions of the experts will lead, more free schools that can ignore state school rules and education and hospitals that are privately rather than publicly run.

If you think current officials are dismissive of teachers, wait until the financial and cost accounting experts take charge.

flexybex · 22/06/2012 21:56

Population of Singapore 5.5M
Population of Finland 5.5 M

Population of London 7.5 M

Population of England 51.5 M

Surely that will have an effect on educational policy and social and economic well-being (amongst many, many other things)?

claig · 22/06/2012 22:09

The problem with these reports about the need for teachers to have masters degrees and to be the "top graduates" and for a demand for more professionalisation of the teaching profession, is that they imply that the current profession is not professional enough, not good enough and that the dumbing down and grade inflation is the fault of the teachers. It has nothing to do with the teachers, and everything to do with the New Labour politicians and the exam boards, but McKinsey probably won't recommend any changes there. Will there be a call for politicians to all have masters degrees and PhDs?

Gove, I seem to remember, wants all teachers to have a minimum 2:1 degree, but is this really necessary?

You don't need a masters degree to teach, you only need a masters degree if you are a management consultant who wants to preach.

daffodilly2 · 23/06/2012 08:55

love your message headfairy! Good to read others think the harping back to good old days is tripe!

I can't believe people like Gove - he is just so mean! He wants to divide people, a nasty reactionery!

There - I feel better now! Smile

claig · 23/06/2012 09:28

For those you doubt the value of going back to the "good old days", I recommend the words of the Daily Mail's excellent Melanie Phillips

'Back to the fifties? We should be so lucky.'

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2162806/Wow-Michael-Gove-Back-future.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

claig · 23/06/2012 09:32

Apparently, according to the Daily Mail, the reason that Gove kept his plans secret from Coalition members and many Tory ministers and even some civil servants in his own department, is because he feared a progressive sabotage of the plan. He kept it up his sleeve, he played it close to his chest, he thought that would be best.

He is nothing if not a clever man, let us watch what becomes of the plan.

claig · 23/06/2012 09:34

The Daily Mail is talking about him being a potential leader, the one true Tory in the Cabinet, this is like the charge on Balaclava with a bayonet.

claig · 23/06/2012 09:39

This is a revolution, this is 1789, this is the return of the 'good old days', turning back the hands of time.

MammaBrussels · 23/06/2012 10:01

is that they imply that the current profession is not professional enough, not good enough and that the dumbing down and grade inflation is the fault of the teachers.

Except the dumbing down is because of the NC, exam board specification (content outlined by govt) and exam board competition. It's not down to teachers not being professional enough. Yes, there are teachers who are not very good but, IME, the VAST majority of teachers are truly dedicated professionals who put themselves through hell to achieve the very best for their students. Why can't the government see that?

Why doesn't Gove actually ask teachers how to improve education rather than trying to replicate his own school days? That's not the mark of an intelligent future leader. It's the mark of an unimaginative, autocratic , egotistical ideologue.

claig · 23/06/2012 10:04

I agree, it is not the fault of the teachers. There is too much teacher bashing. That is the wrong target.

claig · 23/06/2012 10:08

'Why can't the government see that?'

I think the management consultants are waiting in the wings. Someone has to take the blame in order for there to be change.

ccgg · 23/06/2012 10:38

I very much agree with Claig. Gove could be doing something very positive for this country's long term future. The man talks sense. Smile

breadandbutterfly · 23/06/2012 11:16

No he doesn't. The man is an idiot.

MammaBrussels · 23/06/2012 11:21

Gove could be doing something very positive for this country's long term future by...

ccgg · 23/06/2012 11:25

...strengthening the education system and making British young people respected accross the world as educated well.

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