Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/701/13526
From The Socialist newspaper, 18 January 2012
Ofsted: "requires improvement"
Derek McMillan, Mid-Sussex Socialist Party
Ofsted, the body responsible for inspecting schools, wants to toughen the language of inspections in England - changing the "satisfactory" rating to "requires improvement". Ofsted are notorious for their violence towards the English language and towards education in general.
By sleight of hand they change "satisfactory" to "unsatisfactory". They label schools as "failing" in order to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Who would want to send their children to a "failing" school? Or teach at one?
And the not-so-hidden agenda? Christine Blower, general secretary of teachers union NUT, bluntly pointed out "The government's real agenda behind this change is of course inventing yet another category of schools that it will then seek to force into academy status."
In a welcome move another teachers union, NASUWT, echoed the NUT's concern: "The seemingly tough talk we have heard from the government today, may have popular appeal but the reality is that it has nothing to do with raising standards. Instead, it is about ratcheting up pressure on schools, without providing the support and resources they need to assist them in securing further improvements.
"This announcement will encourage a culture of vicious management practices within schools which will have a profoundly negative effect on the workforce and children and young people alike."
Nothing illustrates Gove's hypocrisy more clearly than his dodgy 'free school' project. For all his blather about raising standards, free schools like the proposed one in Southwater, Horsham, are not required to have qualified teachers.
So any Tom, Dick or Harriet off the street can come and teach our children on the cheap. The private schools the millionaires in the government send their children to are staffed by professionals. If Gove gets his way they will be the only schools that are!
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In The Socialist 18 January 2012:
Anti-cuts campaign
Pensions attacks can still be defeated
Labour leadership approves the Con-Dem cuts
Cameron's attack on Scottish independence referendum backfires
Welfare Reform Bill:- Lords compromise is no victory
Ofsted: "requires improvement"
John Lewis economy: another fantasy from Corporal Clegg
Socialist Party NHS campaign
Keep private vultures out of our NHS!
Youth fight for jobs
End the slave labour culture of workfare
Socialist Party workplace news
Electricians' national meeting plans next steps in battle against pay cut
Unilever workers say hands off our pensions
South Yorkshire Stagecoach bus drivers take eighth day of strike action
Doctors support call for action
Obituary
Rob Windsor: socialist fighter and Coventry Socialist Party councillor 1964-2012
Socialist Party feature
1972 Derry - "this was murder"
Socialist Party campaigns
EDL intimidation fails in Barking
Save community schools - no to academies
Protect women's rights - oppose the abstinence bill
International socialist news and analysis
Greece: Non-payment movement against new housing tax
Irish 'poll tax' battle has begun
Nigeria: Fuel strike suspended
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