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El horrible sistema educativo británico

Cristina Hansen

Por: Cristina Hansen

¿En qué se basa la profesora para discriminarme a mí o a alguno de mis compañeros?

En el proceso de formación continua que se exige a los trabajadores de hoy en día me he apuntado a un curso que ofrecía la universidad británica sobre fundamentos de enseñanza y aprendizaje. El curso se desarrolla de una manera práctica y amena que permite reflexionar sobre cómo uno enseña o los alumnos aprenden. Todo ha sido muy bonito hasta que nos han mandado planificar una clase y nos han dado como ejemplo de planificación el de la clase en la que estábamos. En el ejemplo se estipula que no se pretende que todos los alumnos aprendan las mismas cosas:

Traducción libre del extracto del ejemplo:

Objetivos de aprendizaje:
Al final de la sesión TODOS los alumnos serán capaces de:
1. Evaluar las necesidades de los alumnos
2. …
3. …
4. …
5. …
6. Justificar razones para aplicar conceptos de motivación
Al final de la sesión ALGUNOS alumnos serán capaces de:
1. Identificar las necesidades de los alumnos
2. …
3. …
4. Justificar qué motiva a sus propios alumnos

De este extracto sólo son importantes dos elementos: en la parte superior se enumera lo que se pretende que TODOS los alumnos aprendan, mientras que en la parte inferior se enumera lo que sólo ALGUNOS alumnos aprenderán. El ejemplo me ha dejado desasosegada. ¿Qué se supone que debo de aprender yo? ¿En qué grupo de alumnos me ha clasificado la profesora? ¿Por qué me discrimina la profesora antes de que yo tenga la oportunidad de aprender? ¿En qué grupo se espera que me autoclasifique? ¿Tengo que autodiscriminarme y pensar que yo no puedo aprender y por lo tanto empezar mi aprendizaje con una actitud negativa ante él? Es decir, si se supone que todo el contenido no es para mí ¿por qué tengo que esforzarme en escuchar a la profesora, o hacer un ejercicio, o una práctica dada?
Cuando comencé el curso me sentía igual que los otros alumnos, con ganas de aprender, de escuchar cosas que me fueran útiles, de exprimir todo lo que pudiera de las nuevas cosas que podrían ayudarme en mi trabajo. Con la diferenciación de qué podría yo aprender me siento defraudada. Si hubiera pagado por el curso exigiría la devolución de mi dinero. Es más, la discriminación podría significar que de cara a mi trabajo haya recibido una formación insuficiente. Una formación insuficiente sólo trae consecuencias negativas a la hora de ser eficiente en mi trabajo. Me clasifica además como un profesional de segunda fila. Además, me pregunto si influirá en mi economía. Al ser un profesional de segunda clase no podré ganar tanto como otros compañeros, ni podré acceder a determinados trabajos para los que, en teoría, estoy cualificada.

También me siento rebelde, ¿cómo sabe la profesora si yo no soy capaz de aprender eso? Es decir ¿en qué se basa la profesora para discriminarme a mí o a alguno de mis compañeros? ¿Es el color de mi pelo? ¿Será mi acento que demuestra a las claras que no soy británica? ¿Es por mi formación en un país extranjero? Tengo una sensación de impotencia e injusticia. No es el hecho de que ella lo piense, o de que ella lo expresara verbalmente o con lenguaje corporal sutil. No, lo que me deja impotente y con rebeldía es el hecho de que está por escrito. Como cuando los nazis dejaban por escrito lo que había que hacer con los judíos, como cuando existían leyes raciales escritas en Estados Unidos. Y la rebeldía, la impotencia se concentra en una actitud negativa hacia el aprendizaje que debería adquirir.

Mi apreciación de la profesora también ha disminuido. ¿Será capaz de enseñarme las mismas cosas que a los demás alumnos? ¿Por qué tendría que respetar los argumentos de alguien que a lo mejor ya me ha condenado antes de saber nada de mí? ¿Cómo puedo confiar en que esta profesora me va a ayudar a tener las mismas oportunidades de aprendizaje que el resto de mis compañeros? ¿Cómo puedo confiar en que la profesora me va a exigir los mismos resultados finales que a mis compañeros? La oportunidad de aprendizaje o exigirme los mismos objetivos me hace igual ante mis compañeros. Cosa distinta es si yo consigo aprenderlo todo con la misma rapidez, o con las mismas habilidades, o usando las mismas experiencias que el resto de mis compañeros. Esa es la verdadera diferenciación y no la que ha impuesto de antemano la profesora. La diferenciación existe dentro del grupo de alumnos, todos diferentes en conocimientos, comprensión, habilidad y experiencias, aunque tuvieran los mismos genes. La diferenciación que expresa la profesora en los objetivos de aprendizaje es una diferenciación externa al grupo de alumnos, que predice lo que tiene que pasar antes de que haya oportunidad de que pase. Porque la posibiliadad de que el aprendizaje sea distinto está siempre ahí. El éxito de la enseñanza se basa en conseguir para todos los mismos objetivos de aprendizaje.
Mi satisfacción con el curso disminuye también. ¿Por qué me han aceptado en un curso en el que me van a discriminar? Prefiero ir a otro donde no discriminen. ¿Para qué esforzarme en llegar al curso a tiempo, escuchar a la profesora, hacer los trabajos que mande? Total, ya han dicho de antemano lo que va a pasar. ¿Para qué trabajar? Podría usar mi tiempo en irme a tomarme un trocito de tarta, de chocolate, y me quedaría más satisfecha.

Mi apreciación de la universidad británica disminuye consecuentemente. Esta universidad no se preocupa por su alumnado. Es más corro el extremo peligro de convertirme en un profesional de segunda clase. Cabe la posibilidad de que los eslóganes usados por la universidad británica para atraer alumnos, sean meros eslóganes vacíos de contenido. ¿Para qué pagar 3000 libras de matrícula? ¿Para qué invertir ningún dinero en mi formación en la universidad británica? ¿Dónde está el famoso prestigio de la universidad británica? Posiblemente me beneficiaría más yendo a un curso en una universidad no británica.

Y entonces vuelvo a recordar la diferenciación externa que se impone a los alumnos de la enseñanza obligatoria en el Reino Unido (ver «La profunda crisis del profesorado británico» ). Y pienso que era sólo cuestión de tiempo que la diferenciación/discriminación de los alumnos en la enseñanza obligatoria llegara al ámbito universitario.

Fuente: http://www.periodistadigital.com/ciencia/educacion/2017/05/11/el-horrible-sistema-educativo-britanico.shtml

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Reino Unido:Why parents should resist the temptation of term-time holidays

Noticias

Europa/Reino Unido/Mayo 2017/Noticias/https://theconversation.com/

The Easter holidays are over – and the long wait for the more generous summer break begins. In just a couple of months, schools will break up, air fares will rise, beaches will be busy and the cost of a family holiday will multiply. So surely it makes sense for parents to be allowed to take their children out of school during term time?

That is the appealing option that prompted one irate father to take his legal case all the way to the Supreme Court to establish a ruling earlier this year. Jon Platt, a British businessman, had been fined £120 after he took his daughter to Walt Disney World during school term.

The resulting (and popular) debate centred on whether parents know what is best for their child – or at least that they know better than the state.

The argument for parental authority over school attendance is initially compelling. Travel can be an important and valuable experience for children. It gives them a break from school work, allows for time together as a family, and can no doubt be educational. Schools and education authorities argue, however, that missing school has a negative impact on academic progress.

School’s out for Mr Platt. PA

Parents and children have an important connection to each other that involves responsibilities and benefits. So an assertion of parents’ rights might seem to make sense.

Research over the last two decades has shown how parenting has become increasingly intensive, with parents spending more time, money and energy on ensuring that their children do well. There is more popular discussion about how parents should behave and evermore political interventions to make them behave in particular ways.

Parents are expected to know what is best for their child and act appropriately. If so much responsibility for children is placed on parents then surely parents should be allowed some flexibility in how they perform their role? Mothers and fathers could feel justified in joining with campaigns like the one orchestrated by “Parents want a say” to argue that if their children are not suffering then the state should reduce its interference in the private sphere and support parental authority.

Cultural education. Abi Skipp/Flikr

So was Platt right to think that he should be able to take his daughter on holiday when he likes? He had argued that his child, then seven, had a school attendance record of over 90% – high enough to fulfil the legal requirement of “regular” attendance to ensure she was getting a good education. In other words, it might be justified for the state to intervene if there was strong evidence of an adverse effect on the child because of poor parenting decisions. But where there is no evidence of this, parents should be allowed to act as they deem fit. He told a newspaper: “Quite frankly, parents need to decide for themselves.”

But there is a good argument that they shouldn’t be allowed to decide – not because of the claim that schools know the needs of children best. But that selfish individualism should be challenged.

A lesson learned

It may not matter to your child if they miss a few days of school – but it will have an impact on others. Teachers are expected to ensure that children catch up with work they have missed which means less attention on the majority. If significant numbers of children are absent (as might be the tendency if parents take a few extra days around formal holidays) then the problem multiplies.

If you are the only parent who takes their child out there may be little ill effect, but if others start to do the same then the consequences escalate. Recent research by political philosophers on the rights of parents has argued that these need to be limited so that individuals cannot significantly advantage their own children over others, and that is what these parents are doing.

It could be argued even more forcefully that the benefits of your own child are marginal compared to the negative impact on other children. So the best reason for not taking your child out of school to go on holiday isn’t about the risk of educational disadvantage they face, or that it is going against government rules. It is that parenting shouldn’t be about seeking to confer an unfair advantage for your child over others.

Fuente:

https://theconversation.com/why-parents-should-resist-the-temptation-of-term-time-holidays-76378

Fuente Imagen:

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Reino Unido:How electro and techno could help to revolutionise school music lessons

Noticias

For many British children, the music they grow up listening to with friends, family, parents and relatives is often not reflected in school music lessons. So while their teacher is trying to get them to listen to Mozart, Bach or Beethoven, back home in their bedrooms the radio is often tuned into a very different station.

Improving access to classical music for children from deprived backgrounds has been a priority for music education and rightly so. Because there is no good reason why the daughter of a brick layer or the son of a shop assistant shouldn’t be enthralled by Mozart.

But it is likely that for a lot of these students, rather than Chopin or Vivaldi, they will be much more familiar with a musical education in hardcore electronic dance music (EDM).

For these young people, this is “our music”, and overlooking this in school music lessons misses an opportunity to help these pupils engage with something they are already naturally interested in.

Hardcore electronic dance music has great potential for student engagement. Pexels.

For a lot of these kids, they’ve grown up with this music – their aunties, brothers and friends are into it, too. And their parents were probably ravers in the heyday of “acid house” or the subsequent years when “happy hardcore” and other forms of harsh, repetitive EDM provided the soundtrack for the lives of countless young people.

School music lessons, however, very rarely even acknowledge the existence of such music within British culture. In many schools, coverage of dance music might stretch from the Galliard or the Pavan to Disco via the Viennese Waltz, but no further in most cases.

Modern music making

Serious engagement with rave and post-rave EDM in the classroom is rare in the extreme. Even your classic mainstream dance music seems to be way off the agenda in most schools.

This much was clear to me when I provided training on using DJ decks in music teaching for a group of Teach First trainee teachers back in 2013.

Teach First sees young graduates recruited into tough, under-performing, inner-city schools for their first teaching placements. And yet despite the strong prevalence of youth culture and niche music scenes in many of these cities – grime in London or bassline in Sheffield – none of these young teachers had seen such equipment used in the schools where they were on placements.

Bassline in Sheffield. Facebook

This was with one exception: one trainee admitted that his school had DJ decks but, disappointingly, he explained that they were never removed from the cupboard where they were gathering dust as “nobody knows what to do with them”.

Face the music

I, too, had little or no experience of using DJ decks when I became a secondary school music teacher in 2003. MC rapping was alien to me and I had never been much of an enthusiast of EDM.

But because of the inner-city character of the North East of England school I was working in, I soon realised that a large minority of the learners were passionate about a form of happy hardcore EDM known as “makina”. This is a sub genre of hardcore techno – which originates in Spain. It is similar to UK hardcore, and it includes elements of bouncy techno and hardtrance.

The bulk of the pupils that were into this type of music at my school were considered to be some of the most disaffected and “at risk” learners. But I actually learned much of what I now know about DJing and MCing from these young people.

A makina rave in Newcastle. Monta Musica Facebook

I also made a little effort to learn from expert local DJs and MCs about this form of music-making and the attendant skills so that I could give it coverage in my lessons.

I have seen first hand the transformative effect the use of DJing and MCing in the classroom can have upon learners. And yet the creative use of DJ decks coupled with MC rapping – an international musical tradition for around 40 years – is barely recognised as a musical discipline even in many of the inner-city schools.

Conversations with the large US provider of music education Little Kids Rock have indicated that a similar situation pertains across the US.

Lost in music

While this kind of music gets some coverage in pupil referral units and youth clubs, and some schools employ visiting specialists for extra-curricular learning, it is extremely rare to find it employed in mainstream classrooms for everyday lessons with the regular music teacher. But given the availability of more affordable technology such as “DJ controllers” and CD decks, this situation may hopefully begin to improve.

Making our classrooms relevant to students is vitally important, because if school feels culturally alien and alienating – as indeed it does for a significant minority of typically inner-city youth – then as educators we are leaving behind a whole group of keen and passionate music lovers.

Engaging pupils with music they know and love is one way to make school feel more familiar and more welcoming. And it could even help to change a few stereotypes about what “types of people” listen to “what types of music” in the process.

Fuente :

https://theconversation.com/uk/education

Fuente Imagen:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/EUQI3KaPWVZx1b1choK7nRan_f0VXt7TeLN8IPHdoJhMCTkoc2WZ4aUA4MS9viFtBUVzNQ=s85

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Reino Unido: The Victorians taught children about consumerism – and we can learn from them too

Noticias

/Europa/Reino Unido/Abril del 2018/Noticias/https://theconversation.com

Every parent dreads the day their child asks where babies come from. But perhaps we should be more concerned about how children learn where other things come from. What do we say when they ask where we get the clothes we wear, the furniture in our homes, the food we eat?

Considering the volume of advertising of all kinds of products designed for and marketed directly to children – everything from toys, to cereals, to fashion – it is surprising how little time we spend on helping children to become educated and empowered consumers.

Growing interest in eco-friendly and sustainable products has led to increased awareness among modern consumers of where our clothes, food and other goods come from. Documentaries like Ethos (2011), The True Cost (2015), and campaigns like Buy Nothing Day and the Clean Clothing movement inspired by the Savar Building collapse in Rana Plaza in 2013, encourage us to think carefully about our choices as consumers. Most of the educational campaigns aimed at young consumers focus on the things they eat and drink, whereas those aimed at older consumers focus on industry and manufacture.

Perhaps this is because we assume children are more interested in what they eat than where their wellies or beds come from. But perhaps we need to think about a more holistic approach. Indeed, consumer interest in sustainability is far older than many of us realise. Though the interest in conscious consumerism may feel like a modern phenomenon, it existed in the 19th century, too. And the Victorians had some interesting solutions to the problem of telling children where our stuff comes from.

Victorian consumers

The Great Exhibition of 1851 brought together goods from all over the world in Crystal Palace, an enormous glasshouse in south London. There were fantastic things on display: a steam engine small enough to fit inside a walnut, a fabulous fake medieval court, a model that transformed from dwarf to giant at the touch of a button. There were very mundane things there, too: blocks of coal and alum, piles of wood, sheets of paper, tablecloths, and ordinary cutlery and crockery.

Considering that the modern department stores and shopping malls didn’t exist yet – Le Bon Marché opened in 1852 – this was the first time so many things could be seen in a single building, making the exhibition a bewildering experience for many visitors. A considerable portion of these visitors were children.

The Great Exhibition. V&A Museum

Many books were written about the Great Exhibition for children – both guide books to lead young visitors around the Crystal Palace and stories about the exhibition after the spectacle closed. These books emphasise the provenance and production of the things on display and encourage child readers to think about where these things come from, who made them, and how they were made.

Children’s Prize Book of the Great Exhibition.Pollard Collection, Trinity College Dublin

These writers wanted to engage children with the material goods around them and, by doing so, to mould them into informed consumers who understood where things came from, how they were made, and how they fit into a wider global economy. For example, the child reader of The Children’s Prize Book of the Great Exhibition, a souvenir book for young visitors, is reminded that “some of the nice butter that you eat on your rolls comes from Ireland” and that the food on the breakfast table doesn’t appear by magic.

Licking alum

The master of this sort of lesson for young consumers was Samuel Prout Newcombe. He appears in various census records as a photographer and a teacher, but by 1851 he was a writer and educator. His books about the Great Exhibition encourage children to investigate the objects around them and really think about where they came from.

He has some unconventional methods. In one book, Little Henry’s Holiday, the characters Henry and Laura are encouraged to touch the objects on display in the Crystal Palace and even to lick the huge block of sharp-tasting alum (aluminium potassium sulfate, which is used today in baking powder and deodorant crystals). It’s a playful, and tactile sort of learning – the kind of approach we associate more readily with Sesame Street than with the 19th century. Newcombe emphasises that the children should engage all of their senses and learn about the whole manufacturing process, from raw materials to the finished product.

A little later in the century, Annie Carey’s Threads of Knowledge (1872) focuses on helping young readers to understand the social and environmental impact of common items made from cloth.

Once she realises her children consume without thought or reflection, the Mamma of the story decides to instruct her children about the origins of the most common items of clothing, reminding them that young children are involved in the manufacture of some of the items they consume thoughtlessly. She reminds the children that though industrialisation has created employment, its history is “a history of much misery and many mistakes”, and tells them of the harmful effects of the chlorine used to bleach cotton on both people and the environment.

By positioning child characters – and by extension child readers – at the centre of a global economy, Carey’s work, like Newcombe’s, helps child readers to become informed, thoughtful consumers.

These Victorian books foreshadowed modern concerns about consumerism and sustainability. Today, our emphasis is on the informed choices that adult consumers can make. But we need to start educating consumers earlier – much earlier.

The Victorians’ playful, narrative-based approach engages the young consumer in the whole process of making, selling, buying and using household goods. We could do worse than learn from the Victorians, and their strategies for teaching young children about production and consumption at a time when consumerism and industrial manufacture were just getting started.

Fuente:

https://theconversation.com/the-victorians-taught-children-about-consumerism-and-we-can-learn-from-them-too-76658

Fuente Imagen:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ZDY082RFX7ScYKbjGUI-IUXPN3wqdzA0WygnBqoRwXtm9nIB526FZKirfi-JCZijk650jQ=s85

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Película: Educando a Rita

Reseñas

Educando a Rita es una película británica, estrenada el 14 de septiembre de 1983 y basada en la obra teatral homónima de Willy Russell.

Argumento

Educando a Rita cuenta la historia de Susan White (Julie Walters), una mujer joven que siente el deseo de volver a estudiar pues le gustaría dejar su actual vida de clase baja. Susan cambió su nombre por Rita, debido a la escritora Rita Mae Brown.

El profesor de la universidad abierta (Open University) a la que asiste, Frank Bryant (Michael Caine) le enseña a conocerse a sí misma y a tomar sus propias decisiones libremente. Al mismo tiempo le ayuda a preparar sus exámenes. A medida que Rita va aprendiendo, la relación con su marido se hace cada vez más distante.

Finalmente, Rita vuelve a cambiar su nombre por Susan y trata en todo momento de comportarse como una persona culta, mientras que Frank, por su parte, habla empleando un lenguaje bajo en cultura (como aquel que usaba Rita al comienzo de la obra) y, además, ha caído en el vicio del alcohol y el cigarro.

Para ver, haga clic aquí:

Fuente de la Reseña:

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educando_a_Rita

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Boletín Informativo «Reformas y Contrarreformas Educativas»

CLACSO

GT CLACSO – OIREPOD/ 21 de abril de 2017/

Boletín Informativo «Reformas y Contrarreformas Educativas»

Espacio que pretende socializar las voces de los(as) actores que viven las reformas educativas mundiales. Tendrá un difusión quincenal en el portal otrasvoceseneducacion.org, a quienes agradecemos y en nuestro próximo portal del Grupo de Trabajo del Consejo Latinoamericano en Ciencias Sociales.

  

Boletín Informativo N°1. Año Abril – 2017.

Reformas y Contrarreformas Educativas.

Publicación que llega a ustedes, gracias al apoyo de investigadores(as) del GT CLACSO “Reformas y Contrarreformas Educativas” y el Observatorio Internacional de Reformas Educativas y Políticas Docentes (OIREPOD), registrado en el IESALC – UNESCO.

Para iniciar éste recorrido, se presenta una mirada de las injerencias de los organismos internacionales para el reformismo en América en “Criatura bicéfala del modelo neoliberal, educación y estado”, en http://insurgenciamagisterial.com/criatura-bicefala-del-modelo-neoliberal-educacion-y-estado/

En el mismo orden, tenemos el “Informe Mundial sobre la Calidad Educativa” de la Red Global/Local por la Calidad Educativa, que aunque fue presentado en el año 2015, hoy en día tiene gran vigencia, ya que menciona todo el debate educativo, sobre las injerencias de los organismos internacionales para propiciar el Apagón Pedagógico Global, a través del reformismo de los sistemas educativos mundiales, léalo en https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/integracionyconocimiento/article/view/12554

América

Desde una mirada, hay quienes dicen “México requiere de reformas educativas que desarrollen la ciencia”, podrás ver la noticia en http://www.provincia.com.mx/web/M%C3%A9xico_requiere_de_reformas_educativas_que_desarrollen_la_ciencia-69139

Hay otros(as) que tienen posturas a favor y en contra de las reformas educativas mexicanas, como “La reforma educativa a ras del suelo” http://otrasvoceseneducacion.org/archivos/214962

Hay quienes como Alejandro Castro, reflexionan sobre México en “Un modelo que no es ni nuevo ni modelo” http://sipse.com/milenio/columna-gis-y-pizarra-alejandro-castro-un-modelo-que-no-es-ni-nuevo-ni-modelo-251081.html

“La Cámara de Diputados de Chile rechaza la reforma educativa de Bachelet”, ya que aunque ésta contempla el acceso gratuito a la educación y la extensión de diferentes becas del Estado, aún no satisface las grandes necesidades del sector estudiantil en Chile. http://otrasvoceseneducacion.org/archivos/214965

En el siguiente artículo, se menciona “¿Cómo reconfigurar la arquitectura de la Reforma a la Educación Superior en Chile”?, en http://ciperchile.cl/2017/03/31/como-reconfigurar-la-arquitectura-de-la-reforma-a-la-educacion-superior/

En Argentina, se inicia con fuerza la consigna de reformas educativas por el presidente Macri, agarrándose de los resultados de PISA- OCDE, de la situación laboral con los docentes y en el querer de mejorar las escuela, vea noticias referentes en “¿Sigue mereciendo la escuela pública de Argentina la admiración del resto de América Latina?” http://www.t13.cl/noticia/mundo/bbc/sigue-mereciendo-la-escuela-publica-de-argentina-la-admiracion-del-resto-de-america-latina y el “Consejo de expertos argentinos fija mejora educación como prioridad para 2030” https://www.terra.cl/noticias/mundo/latinoamerica/consejo-de-expertos-argentinos-fija-mejora-educacion-como-prioridad-para-2030,ab3416795ea0431bf13922ff4e29aa88oakou8sl.html

Brasil, no se escapa de ésta situación, véalo en “Docentes de Brasil también enfrentan ataques a la educación” http://www.laizquierdadiario.com/Docentes-de-Brasil-tambien-enfrentan-ataques-a-la-educacion

Europa

“United Kingdom, Special report: ‘Money wasted on free school scheme’ as education cuts bite”, menciona la lucha de Anne Swift en contra de las reformas educativas que ha implementado el gobierno de Reino Unidos, por los recortes de la inversión en educación, por el aumento de los “proyectos vanidad”, que ha fragmentado el sistema educativo y además ha dejado la educación en manos de las empresas. http://otrasvoceseneducacion.org/archivos/215026

Sigue en España dando que hablar la reforma educativa, así se presenta en la “Educación recula y ya no hará falta aprobar para obtener el título de ESO” http://www.elmundo.es/sociedad/2017/04/18/58f4e16122601d162e8b462e.html

Desde otro punto de vista, en “España, Grecia y Lituania, los países con las reformas educativas peor valoradas” http://www.educaweb.com/noticia/2017/03/02/espana-grecia-lituania-paises-reformas-educativas-peor-valoradas-12840/

Los(as) docentes en Polonia exigen que no hayan despidos por reformas educativas, léalo en “Cientos de escuelas polacas se declaran en huelga por reforma educativa” http://spanish.china.org.cn/international/txt/2017-03/31/content_40541091.htm

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United Kingdom, Special report: ‘Money wasted on free school scheme’ as education cuts bite

Noticias

United Kingdom/18 april 2017/By: Nina Swift/Source: www.yorkshirepost.co.uk

“We are not in a good situation in education in this country.”

These are the words of the former president of the National Union of Teachers, who stepped down from her leadership role yesterday.

 Anne Swift told The Yorkshire Post the growing number of academies, government “vanity projects” amid cuts to school budgets and intense pressures on pupils and teachers to “get results” have led to an increasingly fragmented education system.
 The former Scarborough headteacher, who has been president of the union for the last 12 months following two years as vice-president, handed over the medal of office at the opening meeting of the NUT’s annual conference.
 Reflecting on her time as leader, she said: “There has been a big rise in the number of academies and academy chains sponsored by businesses and commercial investors, who view education as a market where you can make a profit.

“Everything the Government has been doing is in preparation for companies to take over the education of pupils.

“We are fundamentally opposed to that. It is a public right and should be paid for through general taxation.”

Last year The Yorkshire Post revealed that Wakefield City Academies Trust paid close to £450,000 to companies belonging to its chief executive and his daughter.

Referencing this, Mrs Swift said: “There has been a rise in the number of CEOs, principals, or whatever they want to call themselves, who have the position of a headteacher, but pay themselves eight-figure sums, which is taking money away from pupils and education.”

Mrs Swift said the Coalition Government was able to put a “bit of a break” on some of the controversial schemes, and praised the introduction of free school meals for infants.

“It is good to see the Labour group is expanding that all primary pupils,” she said.

But it is the cuts to education funding that Mrs Swift said is the biggest issue facing the system, with unions warning that schools across Yorkshire could lose more than £312m from their budgets and up to 8,378 teachers facing the axe. She said: “This will have a massive impact on schools all over the country and it’s a big challenge for us at the moment.

“The Government is choosing to spend its money on vanity projects, like free schools, academisation and now it is talking about having grammar schools. These are red herrings to distract us from what’s really going on.”

Highlighting serious problems related to the growing number of schools which act as their own admission authorities, she added: “Academies are finding their own ways of excluding children. They can set criteria so children who won’t enhance their results won’t make it into their schools. I don’t think the public realise this is going on. They are not fully inclusive and that’s a scandal. I think the Government should hold it’s head in shame for allowing a system to develop that doesn’t meet the needs of all children in society.”

Mrs Swift said a “striking” change she had noticed during her time in office was the rest of the UK was going in a different direction with education and was moving away from the English system. She said: “We don’t even have a United Kingdom education service anymore. It is part of the Government’s plan to fragment the education system, whilst at the same time controlling it more totalitarity. They want schools taken out of the local authority and to be funded directly by Westminster.”

After spending her presidential year visiting schools and teachers across the UK, as well as travelling abroad to meet educators, she concluded: “We are not in a good situation in education in this country.

“The testing is not appropriate. The idea that all schools should achieve above average results, that’s not possible. At the moment if schools fall below average they can expect a poor Ofsted report.

“Staff are now demoralised because they are doing things they know don’t improve the education of pupils. It’s to satisfy requirements for evidence children are making progress.

“The workload is a massive issue. Teachers want to put their time and energy into planning exciting lessons for children, but they feel bowed down teaching things that are not suitable – an inappropriate curriculum.

“I know of at least five teachers who are going abroad to teach. The phenomenon seems to be growing. People are deciding it’s not worth their own health, the impact on relationships and the lack of opportunity to be with their families, and they are teaching elsewhere, where they are more respected and valued.”

However, she added: “Without exception everyone I have met wants to do their best for the young people they teach.”

A Department for Education spokeman said academies operated under a strict system of accountability and all transactions must be disclosed in academies’ audited accounts.

He said: “Thanks to our reforms there are now 1.8 million more children being taught in schools rated good or outstanding schools than in 2010. School funding is at its highest level on record.”

Source:

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/education/special-report-money-wasted-on-free-school-scheme-as-education-cuts-bite-1-8495020

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