1) Poly come home

The return of the Polytechnic? http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article5780304.ece This could be seen as just the harbinger of another reversal of a state policy, which will waste many millions of pounds of public money. However, I don’t think it is that simple or clear. Elsewhere, the government continues to push ahead with new schemes to encourage disadvantaged students to apply to the ‘top’ universities http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/feb/02/teachers-university-expectations-achievers Analysis of the existing student populations shows that there is a structural tendency for disadvantaged students to attend the new, post 1992, universities. http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/feb/03/access-university1 For those who want more detail a recent study examined this trend http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/feb/03/university-access-social-exclusion and at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/feb/03/universities-admissions-social-mobility and this trend continues to excite some MPs http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/26/university-elitism-access

As an aside, I think it is interesting that these research reports used the Acorn system of social classification, this schema seems to be gaining the upper hand in education studies and we would be wise to use it in any studies that we undertake in the future.

However, back to the main point, I think I am with John Denham on this one. I’m not so excited about ‘top universities’. I think the difficult problem is getting disadvantaged students to stay in education, get 5 GCSEs A to C and then to consider higher education of any sort. The disadvantaged student group seem to be gravitating to the old polys; so why not bend those institutions to fit the customers. I admit that there remains the old British quandary of the divide between academic and vocational qualifications and the assumed inferiority of the latter. This was never addressed when the old polytechnics were converted into universities; the problem was assumed to have been transcended by a simple change of name. Without a serious attempt to make ‘parity of esteem’ real this time round then the vocational route will continue to be seen as second best and unattractive to all types of students.

A utopian thought: It seems to be a chronic problem of UK social policy that old policies and strategies are described in a caricature way by the advocates of each new policy that comes along. I know it’s an old-fashioned idea but I still believe that an honest and thorough understanding of a policy’s history will always help to both better understand the present situation and might even ensure that the new policy is an improvement on the old. We could really do with this approach in education policy.

2) Crisis, what crisis

There has been a late surge in the numbers applying to go to university http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article5733614.ece with more detail at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/feb/16/university-applications-recession there is also a major increase in the numbers going into science and maths teaching http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/trainees-sign-up-to-teach-maths-and-science-1630449.html

3) There should be a law against it

The target to halve child poverty by 2010 is to be missed, no real news there; but the apparent increase in the numbers of families in poverty who have at least one adult wage earner is worrying http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/feb/18/child-poverty-research there seems little appetite for recognising the problem of low wages in government http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/nov/04/ed-balls-poverty-wages if you are interested in a rigorous analysis of the extent and nature of poverty levels in the UK in 2009 and prospects for abolishing poverty by 2020 then I’ve seen nothing better than this report from Joseph Rowntree and the Institute for Fiscal Studies http://www.ifs.org.uk/comms/comm108.pdf . I think the government’s response to the stalling of their anti-poverty drive is rather odd; they are going to legislate in order to make the abolition of poverty a legally binding duty on government. You have until the 11th of March if you have any advice or tips for the government http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/consultations/index.cfm?action=consultationDetails&consultationId=1590&external=no&menu=1 apparently they’d love to hear from you

4) Thus conscience does make cowards of us all

Teachers failing to spot Special Educational Needs (SEN) among students, according to this expert http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/feb/06/pupil-behaviour-school-discipline forgive me, but I see no such nuanced difficulty, the key to this ‘difficult problem’ is the percentage difference, noted in the article, between expected and actual statements of special educational needs in the student population. Every statement of SEN I ever saw, recommended greater expenditure on the assessed child’s education, usually in terms of allocating them teaching assistant time. As the recommendations of special needs assessments carry legal force, they have to be implemented by schools. So, in practice, schools and local authorities try desperately to avoid carrying out full assessments in order to avoid the inevitable extra cost that a statement will bring. Hence the enormous gap between the estimated level of SEN in the student population and the actual number of assessments being carried out. Mild autism being missed by teachers; baloney, this is the self justifying guff of a guilty liberal conscience; this problem is not new and teachers are not missing it. It is the old problem of rationing. It’s about keeping the costs of special needs within existing education budgets, which is achieved by ignoring the bulk of special needs among the student population. Who runs this process - Headteachers.

5) A rose by any other name?

One of the most thorough reviews of primary schooling ever undertaken in the UK has reported. They found that there has been an overemphasis on the ‘3 Rs’ in primary education, causing the educational experience to become too narrow and to stifle pupil development http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/schoolchildrens-lives-are-being-impoverished-1627047.html Some see this as a spoiler for the government’s sponsored review of primary schooling, the Rose review, which is due to report later in the year. I’m happy to await the Rose review, I rather like the emphasis on the 3 Rs and I’m not convinced that a broader educational experience would help those who are failing to become functionally literate and numerate.

6) Children’s university

Its for under 11s http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/feb/24/primaryschools-schools maybe it will help younger students think beyond the limits of their world before too many educational choices have been made.

7) Schools IT

The Independent newspaper occasionally carries reviews of educational software being used in schools. I thought I’d offer you this past week’s selection, if nothing else, it shows just how IT is now central to school learning programs http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/education-reviews-digital-resources-1625431.html I notice that the list includes moneysense, a managing your money program.

8) Braveheart

There is to be a fearless review of university tuition fees by the government http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/feb/03/tuition-fees-cap-review . Well, after the election, maybe.

9) National service for young people

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article5780325.ece I think this, or something very like it, will happen. It ticks all the government’s boxes; it will cost very little, it fixes broken Britain, and it will hide youth unemployment. Whatever form it takes, it will involve masses of mentoring. Do we want some of this?