BBC News Online reports this week that ‘Penalty notices or on-the-spot fines for parents whose children play truant do not work’. According to a study by Kingston-upon-Thames LEA’s principal education welfare officer, Ming Zhang, the government’s truancy tackling strategies have failed. The main conclusion of Zhang’s report is that irresponsible parents, whom the current truanting… [Read More]
The new Educational Conscription blog is chronicling the burgeoning opposition to government proposals to extend compulsory education up to the age of 18. The big shift in policy is not the increased availability of further education to young people, a long held and frequently frustrated government aspiration. Instead, it is the use of coercion, with… [Read More]
Britain’s children are the unhappiest in the developed world says UNICEF in its recent report, An Overview of Child Well-being in Rich Countries. Britain came bottom not only in Subjective Well-being but also in Family and Peer Relationships and in Behaviours and Risks. United Nations research findings should generally be treated with some scepticism. Nevertheless… [Read More]
The DfES ought to be proud: they’ve cracked the child psyche and come up with the best way to encourage good behaviour in formerly wayward and wild pupils, namely, for schools and teachers to offer ‘prizes’ and increase their use of ‘encouraging language and gestures’. This is some of the guidance offered by the Elton… [Read More]
The Office of National Statistics’ release of the latest Social Trends report has brought the issues facing Britain about which we are most concerned into sharp relief. David Green was interviewed on Radio 4’s Today program this morning on the consequences of increasing lone parents (listen again here). Robert Whelan was interviewed by the Daily… [Read More]
On the very day I chose to slate the EU for inconsistencies between its ‘world leadership’ in distributing aid to developing countries, and policies such as the Common Agricultural Policy and excessive tariffs that quite frankly screw the very same countries over, what does the EU go and do? Propose to: “remove all remaining quota… [Read More]
‘Smith!’ screamed the shrewish voice from the telescreen. ‘6079 Smith W.! Yes, you! Bend lower, please! You can do better than that. You’re not trying. Lower, please! That’s better, comrade. Now stand at ease, the whole squad, and watch me.’ A sudden hot sweat had broken out all over Winston’s body. His face remained completely… [Read More]
A report published today by the OECD confirms the EU’s position as the biggest aid donor in the world. Combined, the EU-15 gave away €48 billion in overseas development aid (ODA), or 0.42 percent of their GDP, in 2006. This represents a massive 57% of world development aid. The report also highlights how there is… [Read More]
The Times Education Supplement’s [TES] front page headline, ‘One in four parents who home-educate children provides little or no teaching’ ties neatly in with the alarming news that our already very high secondary school truancy rate ‘is at least 18% higher than thought’ [BBC News]. The connection between home schooling and truancy lies in the… [Read More]
Dr Crippen delivers a steady drip feed of episodes that demonstrate quite how ridiculous and dangerous hospital bureaucracy has become. This diary entry from yesterday was exemplary. Tuesday 27th March One of those irritating but glorious phone calls. I saw Mrs Jones, a middle aged lady, and heavy smoker, with an ominous lump in her… [Read More]