Tag Archives: michael gove

A Failing Education System – A Recent Student's Perspective

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The education system in the UK is failing, despite what the politicians may tell us. Recently a Labour party MP illustrated what a wonderful job they had done in power. It was the usual infuriating Labour spin and refusal to accept any responsibility. She set out an array of meaningless statistics, stating how much grades and standards had improved.

Frankly grade statistics mean absolutely nothing. Grade inflation benefits everyone. It benefits the, politicians the teachers, the parents and the students. Is it any wonder grades keep increasing? Only one statistic really matters, youth unemployment. Youth unemployment will soon hit a million. It is a damning indictment of Labours 10 years in power. For all the great grades people may have it means nothing when it comes to getting a job and ultimately that’s all that matters.

What’s the problem? The problem is teaching culture. It is an obsession with exams and teaching the test. Teachers have become very good at teaching tests and students have become very good at doing them. Everything in the exams can be learnt. There is no opportunity for the students to show their own ideas. All the answers have to fit into a mark scheme (which we studied extensively) even the so called evaluation questions (where a student is supposed to be expressing their own ideas). All this stems from uncreative rigid syllabuses all again designed to fit into a nice and easy marking scheme. This is not how learning should be.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not blaming the teachers it’s certainly not their fault. Most teachers would love to spend more of their time doing real teaching but what choice do they have when their jobs are on the line. The problem is excessive central control and a system which treats everybody as a statistic rather than an individual and is obsessed with targets.

How many practice papers do you think I undertook for each A level module. 5? 10? The true number was closer to 25 per module. By the time I got into the exam I’d already seen and answered all the questions before. Was it any wonder I got great grades? But was it really a test of my intelligence and skill? What did I really learn? I’ve now been doing exams every term since the age of 8. If the education has left me with one thing it’s the ability to pass an exam.

When I came out of the education system I naively thought that with my great grades I would walk into a job. As it was I was completely unprepared.

In my next article I will show what we need to do to fix the system and prevent the country becoming engulfed in crisis in the future, because believe me, if we don’t fix this, it will. In the meantime please add your own ideas and thoughts below.

Murdoch Update: News of the World Tapped Sara Payne's Phone.

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Another awful twist to the phone hacking scandal today as Sara Payne found out that her phone had been hacked. The phone that had been hacked was given to her as a gift by Rebekah Brooks so she could stay in touch with her supporters.

The extraordinary access that the Murdoch family had to Cabinet ministers was revealed yesterday, more than two dozen private meetings between the family and senior members of Government were granted in the 15 months since David Cameron entered Downing Street.

Cabinet Ministers had over 60 private meeting with the Murdoch’s and the figure rises to 107 if you include social events. James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks were given confidential defence briefings on Afghanistan and Britain’s strategic defence by Defence Secretary, Liam Fox.

George Osborne had 16 separate meetings since May 2010 with News International editors and executives, he also invited Elisabeth Murdoch to his 40th birthday party last month.
The Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, dined with Rupert Murdoch within days of the Government coming to power, the minister to see Rupert Murdoch most frequently is Michael Gove, a former News International employee.

The list was released by government departments yesterday (Wednesday) and highlight the unhealthy relationship between News International and senior members of the Cabinet.

David Cameron said he met News International executives on 26 occasions since entering Downing Street.

To put it in perspective Mr Osborne met with representatives of The Daily Telegraph group on six occasions and The Independent, London Evening Standard twice. Mr Hunt met Telegraph and Independent figures twice each and the BBC 11 times.

Last night a spokesman for Mr Gove insisted that his meetings with the Murdoch’s were of a personal nature. “Michael worked for the BBC and News International and his wife works for News International now,” he said. “He has known Rupert Murdoch for over a decade. He did not discuss the BSkyB deal with the Murdoch’s and isn’t at all embarrassed about his meetings, most of which have been about education, which is his job.”

A spokesman for Mr Fox said that the briefings given to the Murdoch’s were given because of the “interest in defence matters” shown by News International papers.

The Chancellor had said he would be happy to talk about the meetings.

It was revealed today that the phone hacking inquiry might take longer than a year.

James Murdoch received unanimous backing today from the BSkyB board despite pressure to step down.

What’s next?

Young People In Politics: Ben Mallet Interview.

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It takes a lot for me to be impressed by people, Ben Mallet scores on this point. He is smart, passionate and obscenely young ( Still in his teens!). Ben is one of life’s doers, and, I am almost certain, will one day be Prime Minister. Keep an eye on him.

Why did you go into politics and why conservative?

I got involved with the Conservative party from quite a young age, not because I was a political anorak (I would hope), but because I’ve always thought its really important for young people to take an interest in decisions being made by governments, that are going to affect people of my age, later on.

How do you think we get more people involved in politics?

I think the key to involving young people in politics, is acknowledging that the majority of young people are already interested in politics, just not the politics that we see on BBC Parliament.

If you were to ask one of my friends, “What do you think of the Coalition government?” then I would happily bet that they’re eyes would glaze over and they would have lost interest before you’d even finished the question. Where as, if you were to ask “What do you think of the Coalition government’s policy to increase tuition fees?” then you would get a completely different reaction- probably one involving a pretty lively response.

To give another example, I was at a Kingston council meeting last week and the Lib Dems decided that they were going to launch a motion stating their opposition to the rise in Tuition fees. The audience was mostly made up of local teenagers coming to hear the debate and three even got up to speak!

It’s all about making politics RELEVANT to young people.

Tell me about setting up the Richmond park CF
Richmond Park Conservative Future is a real success story, although not just my own. So many people worked to make RPCF what it is today- not least Zac Goldsmith.

Our underlying principle, as I’ve just stated, is making politics relevant to young people. As a result, we held Summer & Christmas parties, inviting loads of local teenagers to come and quiz Zac on what he stands for, as well as enjoying themselves. Combined, over 350 people came to these events. We’ve also held discussions with local politicians and events at the local universities.

We also teamed up with a local autism charity to hold a sponsored Fun-Run in Richmond Park, raising hundred’s of pounds for a really great local organisation.

How did you get involved with Zac Goldsmith

I first met Zac when I volunteered to work in the local association office- he had just been selected as the parliamentary candidate and was looking to really launch his campaign locally.
I got involved because Zac wanted lots of young people to get involved- and so the ball began to roll.

You got new 180 members at The Kingston Fresher’s Fayre. How does that feel?

I feel very humbled by it. It was a total team effort and there was a lot of effort involved. The explosion of young people’s engagement in local politics we witnessed wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for the energy displayed by Zac or the campaign team. I am honoured, however, to have acted as a catalyst.

Why do you think there is a stigma to being a Tory?

This is a question that a lot of people ask me- the truth is that the Conservative party has always had some “Marmite” tendencies- you either love them or you hate them. As a result there are some areas of the country and some groups of people who will always hate the Tories- for what they did decades ago that haven’t yet been forgiven.

The flip side of the coin is that there are some areas of the country and some groups of people who love the Tories.
The Conservative party is one of the oldest political parties in the world and so it’s history ultimately plays a big part in the party’s perception today.

Why are you a Tory?
I think its all about trust. When you strip off all the political party slogans, logos, PR machines and spin doctors, it all comes down to how each party treats people.

The Labour party doesn’t trust anyone. It doesn’t trust me to not be a racist or a nutter, so it imposes ridiculous political-correctness and health and safety laws. It doesn’t trust doctors, teachers or even the police to do their job, so it imposes layers of bureaucracy, targets and by-laws. It doesn’t trust my community to make decisions themselves so leaves the power with bureaucrats in Whitehall and doesn’t trust businesses to work effectively, so imposes heavy regulations and red-tape. And to fund all this centralization, they have to ask for huge amounts of tax on everything from Income to Bingo.

I believe that the Conservative party does trust people. Michael Gove’s plan to allow parents, communities or organisations to set up their own schools is one example of this. Another example is Andrew Lansley’s plans to give more power to doctors, or Eric Pickle’s policy to radically decentralize power to local councils. The Prime Minister’s Big Society is all about trust.

Thank you Ben.

The Perversion of Empire {Carl Packman}

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We live in an age of bombast. Anyone who has seen Eddie Izzard’s show Circle will know of the skit he does about the word awesome, used so liberally now that even hot-dogs can be described as awesome, and of course if a hot-dog is considered awesome, what words will be available in our bank to describe the first landing on Mars, or our first sighting of Erkel.

Today the word empire and imperialism are used out of place, obscuring those original meanings. People go forth on these words particularly with regards to US and European ventures in the Middle East.

My own view is that it was unnecessary to be too instrumental in the creation of Afghan and Iraqi governments, not for the oversimplified reason that democracy building equals empire (it doesn’t) but because it was unnecessary in the war on terror (by and large a war against terror cells and factions). Regime change follows stripping the influence and power of those cells and ripping down the cash channels between neighbouring terror cells.

I opposed the Iraq war on the grounds that it was an own goal, and I still do, but the Taliban continues to forge power in northern provinces of Afghanistan and wields power by setting up fake checkpoints and unleashing suicide attacks. Reports back in 2009 suggest that families in Kunduz, a northern city in Afghanistan, and capital of the Kunduz Province, have been sending one son to join the Taliban in case militants take back control of that region again.

Fear pervades that region, and the Western troops ought to play a role in training Afghan forces to take power away from the hands of Taliban forces. Whatever ones view, that venture is not one of empire, and good reason too, because empire is over.

But one man who is not amused by the setting of the sun on the empire is Niall Ferguson – the man Michael Gove jumped up and down to clapping like an inebriated guinea fowl – empire apologist courted by the department of education.

Ferguson has been characterised as the Jamie Oliver of History, but this is not true, because as far as I can tell Oliver can at least tell his mange tout from his lady fingers.

In Ferguson’s opinion history is a discipline that won’t be jeopardised by strong opinion. Barely concealing his apologies for the British Empire, and criticising the American Empire for not being enough like the former, is one thing, but basic knowledge can remind you that history is at least the one subject where a relaxation of emotional attachment to a political ideology is vital.

In fact, the first lesson of relaying the objective facts lent to us by history is to leave agendas aside (they can obscure our understanding, and drag historical literature down to the level of chinese whispers).

Well this simply isn’t on the menu for Ferguson, who will now be in charge of deciding what goes in and what stays out of the curriculum of history for children (perhaps this is why the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority – a non department body – has been scrapped by the new coalition government).

Gove’s reason for allowing this is because he believes in traditional history teaching. We can guess what this means (Tudors, Saxons, Smurfs, Pingu etc) but is Ferguson the architect of traditional history, or is he to history what Mao was to the open society.

Gove uses the word tradition like some talk of empire today; perversely.