Education

Times tables tests should be scrapped and grammar exams “stripped back”, teaching unions are urging the Government.

Ministers are being urged to cut down the number of tests in primary schools, which unions say lead to high levels of anxiety in children.

Tests on times tables are compulsory for all Year Four pupils at state schools in England.

That long march through the institutions hit teacher training some time back. The teachers don;t know this stuff so how can they be judged on how well the kids learn it?

Last year there was an 8 percentage point gap between the proportion of students getting A*-A grades in south-east England and that in the north-east – wider than the five-point gap in 2019 – while pupils in private schools were more than twice as likely to achieve top grades as those in the state sector.

So they’ll stick 20% VAT on school fees to create as smaller private sec tor and thus lower inequality.

Fun how lowering inequality never does mean sorting out the shite that the state provides, does it?

‘What am I meant to do, go and say sorry like a little bitch?” said the 15-year-old boy sitting beside me in a quiet room halfway through the school day. He had refused to apologise to his classroom teacher for his disruption of her lesson. It had been insidious, low-level nuisance stuff: he’d been swinging on his chair, answering back and wouldn’t stop talking.

I’m a senior pastoral leader within a comprehensive school in southwest England, so students are often sent my way when there’s a stalemate. What was depressingly clear was that this child’s refusal to apologise was connected to the fact that his teacher was a woman, and saying sorry would mean that he, a male, would lose face.

This isn’t TikTok, Twitter, social media – this is male teenagedom. Half the point of education is to whip this attitude out of them – or at least teach when it’s appropriate. No blubbing when told to march toward the machine guns lads, you’ll lose face by letting the side down. It is OK to have a little tear when City finally score a goal after that 20 year drought.

That people who don’t know this are running the education system is what is wrong with the education system. The whole job you’ve got there is to sort this out.

The big idea: should we abolish exams?
At the moment, we use academic results to assign social worth. That has to change

As we don’t use exams to assign social worth this is nonsense, isn’t it?

To assign academic worth, yes, but that’s not social worth.

About 40 per cent of universities in England are expected to run budget deficits this year, according to the Office for Students.

Three universities are thought to be in serious financial peril, and universities believe Labour will pressure the sector to manage its own financial problems rather than provide a taxpayer bailout.

So, which three?

Oxford? Or Cowley School of Grievance Studies?

Men may be more likely to grow a beard when they are ready to settle down, a study has found.

Beards require more care and attention than being clean-shaven, scientists say, and they believe men who are prepared to invest time, effort and money into growing facial hair are more likely to swap single life for domestic bliss.

A study led by the University of Padua in Italy asked more than 400 men aged between 18 and 40 about the motivation for having a beard,

Ah, they asked Italian men.

Beards require more care and attention than shaving, eh? Seriously people, seriously…..

Although tuition fees for home students are still viewed as unacceptably high, most universities now make a loss on every one they recruit, as inflation has steadily (and then rapidly) devalued the £9,250 annual fee, last set in 2017. As the profitable overseas students have declined, something has had to give: well over half of UK universities are now cutting staffing costs, be it through compulsory redundancies, voluntary severance schemes or freezes on hiring and promotion. And outside the rarefied global elite, many prestigious institutions are losing ground in the reputational battlefield of international league tables. At some point, there is going to be a high-profile bankruptcy or clumsy last-ditch merger, unless the next government acts quickly and decisively.

What’s wrong with bankruptcy?

Ministers are allowing private schools abroad to brand themselves as “British schools” despite not teaching about same-sex relationships, equality or drug abuse as required in England, the Guardian has learned.

Overseas schools are able to be officially accredited as “British Schools Overseas” (BSO) by the Department for Education (DfE). This came after the government U-turned and exempted them from using the same curriculum it requires in England if doing so would conflict with local laws.

The Guardian seems shocked that anyone would be allowed to obey local laws nopt those imposed by the colonialist British. But then that’s The G, eh? Colonialism is great if it’s our sort of it.

Universities in England risk closure with 40% facing budget deficits, says report

An awful lot of that third tier should go bust. Or back to being a Technical College doing day release schemes for apprentices.

When Asna Tabassum, a hijab-wearing Muslim, was announced as the valedictorian for the University of Southern California class of 2024, my initial reaction was the thought of my south Asian mother saying, “What are you doing? Why aren’t you valedictorian?” But what followed was pride.

Then the university announced last week that it would no longer allow Tabassum to speak at commencement. After pro-Israel groups mischaracterized Tabassum’s pro-Palestinian views as “antisemitic”, the USC administration claimed that security concerns made her speech untenable.

There is now a striking correlation between levels of education and holding stupid, destructive ideas, between being highly credentialled and falling for every fashionable conspiracy theory, every tribalistic affliction, every online fad.

That long march through the institutions…..

They’re called “Pell runners” — after enrolling at a community college they apply for a federal Pell grant, collect as much as $7,400, then vanish.

Since fall 2021, California’s community colleges have given more than $5 million to Pell runners, according to monthly reports they sent to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. Colleges also report they’ve given nearly $1.5 million in state and local aid to these scammers.

Should be possible to automate that, right?

Actually, at $7k a time, why automate? Spend the time to do it right.

The leader of the UK’s largest education union has called for an independent inquiry into the rise of sexism and misogyny among boys and young men, saying it should not be left to parents and schools to police.

Can’t have parents bringing up children. They might allow them to indulge in wrongthink. State podding hutches for all!

Just to remind, you can get into a teacher training college on 2 Es at A Level.

A council has apologised after parents were offered primary school class photos that excluded pupils with complex needs.

Parents whose children attend Aboyne Primary in Aberdeenshire were horrified and complained after being sent a link from a photography company offering them two versions of the class pictures.

The mother of a child with additional support needs said she was left “absolutely heartbroken” after her child was removed from her school photo.

That Tamsina not be shown alongside the mongo might sell piccies. But, err, you know, If that’s the school class then that’s the school class. As – and I’ve been trying to recall where this line comes from – if she’s good enough to get into the school then she’s good enough to be in the piccie, right?

So I can be knocked down:

Playground bullies do prosper – and go on to earn more in middle age
Five-decade UK study finds that aggression at school leads to better-paying jobs, while those with emotional instability went on to earn less

No, that’s wrong.

Children who displayed aggressive behaviour at school, such as bullying or temper outbursts, are likely to earn more money in middle age, according to a five-decade study that upends the maxim that bullies do not prosper.

They are also more likely to have higher job satisfaction and be in more desirable jobs, say researchers from the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex.

That might be right.

It’s not that having been a bully leads to such things. It’s that the same character traits lead to both such things. And, umm, that aggressive and even o verbearing men do better is such a surprise, yes?

Can you get in touch? Sorry, forgotten your real name…..

OK, lety’s try this again. Can you email me with an email addy that I can respond to please? timworstallATgmail.com

Cambridge admissions are “skewed” towards students from London and the south east, the university’s vice-chancellor has said as she launches a diversity drive.

Prof Deborah Prentice said she wants to encourage more students from “all backgrounds” to apply to the university, including from across the north west of England.

Cambridge tends – tends – to admit from certain socioeconomic classes. Which are concentrated in London and the SE. That’s where the successful professional classes are, after all, that’s where their kids will grow up.

It’s not that Cambridge (or Oxford) has a geographic bias, it’s that the target classes are biased in their geography.

That means that it’s not getting more students from different geographies that matters, it’s getting them from different classes.

Corporal punishment – an essential part of a decent schooling perhaps.

But, umm, the headmaster giving the 18 year old – and really rather cute – cheerleader a thorough spanking?

Might we not think that it is maybe not entirely school discipline that is involved here?

Some have argued the presence of teachers on OnlyFans underscores the financial pressures those in education face, with the average school teacher making $66,745 a year and 40% of all education professionals earning less than $25,000 every year.

The high school teachers – even the elementary ones – do pretty well. $66 k is only just a little under median US household income. Teachers have long been hired out of the lower drawers of the intellectual chest.

Getting into college is just the beginning. Your GPA will fall under scrutiny when you are ready to declare yourself as an education major. Education programs generally require a minimum GPA of 2.75. This can be lower or higher at your school, so ask your adviser for the minimum GPA requirement. In 2020, Columbia University Teacher College, required a minimum GPA of 3.0, as well as two letters of recommendation before they would accept an application

A GPA of 2.75 is not a major intellectual achievement at college. Nor, to be honest, is a 3.0.

So for those who do become school teachers the pay is really pretty good – and add vast pensions and health insurance etc on top, the short working year and so on. It’s really not a bad screw.

But of course there’s then that 40% of “educators” on less than $25k. They, weirdly, are the academically brighter but not bright enough. Those who didn’t do the teacher training classes. But instead did the Masters, even the PhD. But then didn’t get to become professors with tenure. Instead they’re floating around those hallowed college halls as adjuncts. Really, the only place where the vast mess of graduate overproduction can find any sort of work. Who else would hire a PhD in grievance studies? And even the colleges won’t hire as many as the colleges produce.

Which does lead to an interesting conclusion. The best thing America could do would be to close down 85% of their higher degree programs.

Go on, prove me wrong.

But the salary threshold has been lowered to £25,000 for those who started their degrees last year. The repayment period has also been extended to 40 years.

According to research by London Economics carried out for the Nuffield Foundation, these reforms have increased the costs for lower and middle-income graduates while at the same time lowering the total repayments for those in higher-earning jobs, who will be able to pay off the debt sooner.

As women are more likely to have lower wages due to career breaks, they will pay on average £10,000 extra during their lifetime while men will pay £7,500 less than graduates on Plan 2, the research found.

We want those who do not get the salary uplift from having a university education to pay more for their university education. So as to dissuade them from consuming valuable resources in gaining a university education that’s not worth having.

Blokes doing arts, birds doing grievance studies, the entire aim is to stop them doing so.