New O-Level

[zag]

I don't get the resistance to change in the public sector.

 

Change things when they are needed (Employers have been asking for a while to test basic skills more).

 

But then again don't change things for the sake of change. It should be quite simple really

[ricki]

It is simple. Spend a few years getting something to work and then bin it all and start again from scratch. It keeps the powers that be in work.

[CAM]

I think you've not quite understood it. Its not being introduced yet. Not even to tut at. It doesn't get introduced until 2015!

 

They haven't introduced it as a certificate yet. However, the government has been tracking schools for the last few years to see if they meet the English Baccalaureate and if the kids achieved C or higher in English, Maths, Science, Languages and select Humanities lessons. They then had the cheek to point out poor uptake of EBacc even though the kids hadn't had a chance to pick the subjects required to meet the criteria.

[PiqueABoo]

There isn't a separate qualification - the EBac will be the only one for the core subjects. I *seriously* doubt any school will let any kids do the other stuff without doing the EBac stuff - it'd damage their league table standing!

 

In principle there will be a separate consultation "this year" on "school accountability". For some reason I am expecting that to say EBacc goes in the league tables, but if we're really (lottery winner) lucky it might address the systematic corruption of education they have caused.

 

At the very least I'd expect to see democracy in action. A Parliamentary Select Committee charged with getting answer, MP's talking to constituents, Serious newspaper columnist and TV shows such as Question Time and News Night discussing the merits of the wider issue

 

Have you wanted that for anything else in the last decade? The system is not a direct democracy and in a representative democracy like ours this is just an insignificant etiquette complaint i.e. they, same as previous goverments, would go through the box-ticking motions, find interesting ways to dismiss any credible objections and then still do exactly what they wanted.

 

A Parliamentary Select Committee charged with getting answer, MP's talking to constituents, Serious newspaper columnist and TV shows such as Question Time and News Night discussing the merits of the wider issue

 

English GCSE results, Ofqual & Gove: Interest in that lasted for a few days, briefly picked up for Gove at the Select Committee which seemed to think it was a lesser priority than their egos re. not being told X first, and has pretty much been dead ever since for everyone besides the victims and whoever-it-is that might take some legal action.

 

EBacc: Same kind of story - tons of shallow and essentially nature vs. nurture, progressive v. traditional bleating, then the rest of the world's useless twitter-sized attention spans moved on to the latest analysis of Kate's chest or whatever it was on the front page the next day.

 

the policy should be based on proper research and open debate

 

I've read quite a bit of research over the years. When it exists (rare) educational research on big issues is often pretty dire, often seems to be designed to deliver the outcome they wanted, probably doesn't relate to this country/culture, and typically has fundamental perspective problems i.e. exclusively deals in the one-size-fits-all view of the entire country from the moon. Oh and no one looks for or reads it before opining... and sadly that extends to some of the apparent heavweights in this area who for the most part will be the only ones debating because that's essentially their job (and we've heard it all before).