Biased BBC contributor Daniel Pycock writes…
“I’ve written before on this blog about the BBC’s relentless promotion of comprehensive schooling – the worst education system the UK has hitherto had: http://biasedbbc.tv/blog/2013/12/23/the-bbc-on-education-ignore-the-evidence-believe-ofsted/
Now they’re promoting Anthony Seldon’s unworkable reform whereby parents would have to pay £15,000-£20,000 per annum per child to educate their children at “good state schools”. The article at least addresses the fact that selection is by money, rather than ability nowadays. But the lack of criticism is astounding: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25798659
In what sense it it fair to charge a family already paying in the region of £32,000 (income tax), and more including National Insurance and indirect taxation, £15,000 per-annum for schooling at an arbitrary £80,000 cut-off point? A family that earns £79,999 pays nothing and then you get hit with a de facto tax at £80,000 household income? This is clearly not thought through properly.
That doesn’t stop the BBC however, which is so anti-grammar school and free-school that it literally prints any article in favour of unworkable reforms to save its pet-obsession: comprehensive schools.
P. S. The BBC will not let me comment on the article thus far – wonder why that is…?”
Rubbish like this really gets me mad. What planet is this man living on? Even by liberal standards it is absurdly fanciful.
One of my grandsons is trying for the 11 plus. His father is a jobbing carpenter not a rich man by any means. Half his class is also having a go. No help at all from the school. It appears that it would be a disciplinary matter were the head to help the children.
The children are going to be competing for places with private school children whose teachers are giving them every assisitance. So my grandson HAS to have tutoring. His parents are willing to make any sacrifice necessary.
The difference in his education at the very good grammar school and the local comps is so obvious that only an idiot would prefer the latter.
it really annoys me that in 2014 we are actually having to discuss this. This country needs to educate it’s best children with the best and by the best teachers. It is a matter of national survival .
The only answer is to bring back the grammar schools.
I went to such a school and I cannot recall ever having any interest in my fellow pupils parents and what they did. Likewise our masters never mentioned our backgounds. They just got on with the job of giving us the best possible education.
This country is seeing now the results of liberal social engineering . Disaster after disaster.
I would exile the lot of them to Siberia if the Russians would take them. They could build their paradise on earth in the snow and ice and leave us alone.
I would love to see what percentage of BBC mid-high level manager’s children go to state schools, my gut instinct is that it would be a pretty low figure.
Well I do know of one real ugly racist fat trout who gets paid by the bBC on a Thursday night who like the pigs in Animal farm said one thing about schooling and then did what was forbidden:
4 legs goods..2 legs bad.
Once again the BBC , mouth piece of the liberal left, promotes an idea that demonstrates how in denial the left is about its entirely discredited policies. Surely after 40 years of comprehensive education everyone, not blinded by their political allegiance, can see that it has been a disaster for the country and for many of the children who were educated at comprehensive schools. The recent OECD survey provide indisputable evidence that British education was very poor. Yet the left denies it and blames other factors and the BBC, who should be rightly outraged by such a report, buries it.
It is the best and the brightest people in a society that provide the ideas and know how to create jobs and wealth in a society. The better educated they are the more society as a whole benefits.Yet it is those people who are held back at a comprehensive school. Additionally, it is well known to anyone not in the education sector that Grammar Schools provided social mobility.
The education sector was long ago captured by the left. Mr Gove is having to find strategems to get round their dead hand. Such is their power that even a democratically elected minister cannot tell them to get on with it. They are able to frustrate his every move if he has to make his reforms through them , so he has to go round them. The BBC are fighting hard against his reforms and standing shoulder to shoulder with the education establishment.
The BBC are giving Seldon’s report credence by airing it on the news. It is just another attempt by the left to force everyone to be educated at the bog standard comprehensive, so that future generations look to others to lead them ,rather than to think for themselves, and so be more likely to vote for the Labour offer of a dependency culture.
And the way the BBC fawn over that ‘national treasure’ Shirley Williams the co architect of the demise of the Grammar Schools – always failing to point out the type of institution that she, her children and grand children were educated at. (hint it wasn’t Bash st Elementary!)
stephen nolans is back tonight after his 2 week break touring the usa.i think this would be a good topic tonight for nolan to to have a phone in about,.you never know stephen nolans producers might give you a little phone call inviting you on as a guest to discuss this topic,then again,you have probably got more chance of winning the euro miillions tonight.
Seldon is a classic guilt-ridden creep.
Head of Wellington but rich and enough time on his soft hands to worry about the poor chaps in Bridgewater or Bristol.
A New Labour hack, who wrote unctuous biogs of Blair and his like.
Patronising elitist paid vanity chronicler of Labours destruction of the education “service”…suits him and his school of course!
So the BBC won’t let Vance comment…what a surprise if it reflects anything like the crap that appears here!
Hey kids ! Friday night is troll night ! The weekend can now commence ! 🙂
(Very impressed by the moniker you’ve pulled out of the hat this time, matey. Most appropriate for you, and much better than ‘marvin’ which you were trialling last time out).
Since I’m in a good mood, have an extra ‘like’ on me as the first of your inevitable six or so.
Not sure he fully thought that pseudonym through though.
So far it’s ‘yes you are’ ,but it’s early days.
I doubt you work with your hands or at any real job. Typical liberal comment .Merely personal and avoiding the arguments.
i have noticed this about pods.
The competition for Grammar schools is pretty hot (shows their popularity amongst parents of middle classes). The exam is a struggle for any kid who’s parents cannot afford premium rate tutors to pass the entry test. I was one of those who thought a bright kid would walk it, but even with a (11+ pass at 80%) is usually not enough to get in (and many are disappointed even when they have done well, those that have seen ‘dulled’ by many previous exam tests usually get in), whilst those that haven’t don’t. The alternative for most parents is private but I chose Home Education rather than the bash street Comprehensive. Although Teachers can never ‘recommend’ a home education (that was banned under Ed Balls and Labour) you can achieve a far higher level of education by arranging it all yourself and in far less time it takes a school to arrange anything. Grammars may have good points but they do seem to churn out ‘identikit’ well above average (but not brilliant in terms of imagination). The national education system is really a bit of a lottery under Labour and local authorities who just see it as a step to (or from) social services. It is made worse by Teacher training Colleges insisting that every teachers has to be indoctrinated with strict politically correct BBC liberalising of labour sentiments before they are sent out on blinder missions where only half get through the first six months. The entire National Curriculum is a national failure (Labour cannot admit that so they invented ‘Special Needs’ funding and teaching assistants (of limited value). It is a mess and yet whatever ‘Gove’ does cannot be any less of a mess than Labour educational policy ‘of ‘one-size-fits-all’ of Ed Balls (as education Minister, his bullying (the worst this nations has ever seen, tried to ban all Home education on his watch) (see BADMAN review of 2009). There is no doubt that should Labour ever come to power they would ban ANY alternative to state education and we will all be forced into comprehensives and mind control. The Political elite will however prefer Private after 5 mins of deep thought about their moral values and loyalty to the Labour cause. So Grammers may not offer every child the best education, but as the UK does not have Engineering ‘Technical Schools’ any more there is little choice until proper Technical Academy’s get going to suit the better ‘able-kids’ in society (and that means upsetting the BBC liberals and past Labour social policies) that have all failed.
“The competition for Grammar schools is pretty hot”
That’s because there are so few of them,
My father was a lock-man for the P.L.A. and we lived in a ‘dockers cottage’ identical Alf Garnets , but I and my two brothers all attended grammar school ( My elder brother going to the prestigious St Olaf’s) but then of course the competition for places was less intense.
There can be no doubt in my mind that the the fall in social mobility that has been so widely acknowledged, is due entirely to the almost complete abolition of the grammar school.
Not disagreeing with you there Stewart. I agree – sadly too few left. Looking through Saturdays Telegraph I spot a short history for the word ‘Grammar’ (QI facts by John Lloyd and co) it is based on the French ‘grammaire’; ‘refering to any book of learning written in Latin’. Without doubt English is a core discipline for any Grammar school and that could be why ‘multicultural’ lefties (i.e. BBC) think Grammars do not reflect the UK ‘disaster’ of a communal state education. I am for Technical schools including Grammars.