A new study has declared the way school pupils learn to read is ‘uninformed and failing children’, and there have been calls on the government to drop its phonics focus. I disagree. The UCL’s Institute of Education says that phonics learning isn’t ‘underpinned by the latest evidence’ – but it is underpinned by the experience…
Children next week will learn what GCSE and A’ Level results they have achieved. However, like last year, the method of arriving at the grades will not be through the process of marked examination papers. This is because of the pandemic, which has deeply affected the education of millions of our young people. Last year…
There was a telling announcement in the Queen’s Speech that revealed the disastrous policy of Tony Blair’s in wanting half of the youngsters to go to university. The Queen read out the government’s policy platform that included ‘turbo-charging the economic recovery by seizing the opportunities of Brexit, investing in infrastructure and delivering a lifetime skills…
I was recently interviewed by the Daily telegraph about a story in which Lord Kenneth Baker – a former Education Secretary – said GCSEs ought to be abolished. As the person who introduced the exams this is quite a U-turn, something his Prime Minister at the time, Margaret Thatcher, was not keen on doing. Lord…
Standards at universities should be high and academic excellence ought to be the aim. However, in order to ‘decolonise’ the curriculum and ensure ‘equity of opportunity’, the theory of ‘inclusive assessment’ has infected our once-great institutions of learning. This phrase is a euphemism for the further erosion of standards – the opposite of what universities…