Newsnight debate on education

[longfingernails]

Anyone watching?

i was just wondering the same thing.

rather embarrassing having Laws sitting there, not getting a look in.

Balls looks wired - eyeballs on matchsticks.

sorry this is not incisive political debate from my end - end of a long day!

the stuff about parent-led schools is interesting. wonder if it can ever really be pulled off? not sure Gove / Swedish model is really about enabling parents to produce shiney new schools out of nowhere. more like using random facilities to house a "new" school.

Cannot bear Gove. But who are these parents who can set up a school (whilst, presumably holding down their own full-time jobs)?

Well, a lot of it aren't parents. It is educational charities, private schools, etc.

I am a big fan of the Gove schools, especially the pupil premium, but am very unsure about the funding.

The Lib Dem plans are actually very similar.

problem with Gove is that pupil premium is there but capital funding not. so "parent"-led schools are unlikely to happen as you need a partner to run them - though if they can't make a profit will they want in?

a little bit of me secretly agreed with Gove's desire for everyone to learn their king and queens etc etc ... but I think we've moved on too far (and to better things usually) for that now.

standard of debate has been pretty poor - too much talking over and shouting down. Paxo doing a poor job too.

Hmmm... should people with 3rds teach?

It seems unnecessarily divisive to exclude them and of course there are good teachers with 3rds - I wonder about the statistics though?

I would be really interested to see figures on pupil improvement versus teacher qualification.