The call to scrap GCSE coursework takes on a new resonance in light of the most recent evidence. An investigation for BBC Radio Five Live, conducted by the Teacher Support Network, has shown that the pressures on schools to raise results has led to widespread cheating.
nhs, targets, theory x, theory y
The National Trust is to celebrate reaching a 3.5 million-membership landmark by changing its focus. No longer will it just look after the buildings and artefacts that constitute our national heritage. Now it will “advise people how to adapt their lifestyles to climate change and challenge government to be more ecologically aware.” How is it… [Read More]
‘The noble Lord Hannay … will understand better than most the importance of a united position around the UN principles. Our policy has not changed. We expect Hamas to adhere to the principles set by the Quartet in January 2006. These are to renounce violence, recognise Israel and accept all previous agreements and obligations, as… [Read More]
What is a Philistine? Strictly speaking, the Philistines were the Canaanite enemies of the Hebrews living along the southwestern coastline of present-day Gaza. However, its modern usage derives from the great Victorian cultural commentator Matthew Arnold who used the term to describe those who have no conception of the value of art, culture or spiritual… [Read More]
Asked this morning on BBC Breakfast if there was one history book he would recommend, historian and Observer columnist Tristram Hunt answered “Our Island Story”. This of course is H.E Marshall’s enchanting children’s history book which Civitas brought back to life in 2005. Since this single mention, just hours ago, sales of Our Island Story… [Read More]
A theatre on Broadway. A Hollywood actor starring at a blockbuster show. Demand is high and a waiting list is building up. But there it seems there aren’t enough ushers to put on a matinée performance, so the cast go and put on the show in a private members’ club instead – those who can’t… [Read More]
When the Civitas report on Blair’s failure to improve education over the last decades was released, Jim Knight MP squared off against Robert Coe, whose work we have cited, on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme (approximately 12 minutes in from the beginning). To the whole nation, he denied that exams had got any easier during… [Read More]
Three closely connected unresolved issues hold the key to peace abroad today and with that a resolution of the tensions currently posing the gravest threat to social cohesion at home. continued on the Centre for Social Cohesion blog.
It is a response utterly characteristic of New Labour: ‘deal’ with a problem – generally years late – by creating a completely new one. As we’d suspected, under Brown the direction of school reform is not going to change. For the last ten years, a critic’s template might well have been produced to pull out… [Read More]