PACE’s Press Release on Conservative’s Education Debacle
August 29, 2008
While local political parties wrangle over their relationships with the Conservatives PACE put out a Press Release highlighting inconsistencies in the “local” policy in June. It was not a surprise that the media did not pick up on the story. The PR is reprinted here in full .
Responding to answers contained in a UGOV poll conducted by the Conservative Party in Northern Ireland the Parental Alliance for Choice in Education highlighted glaring inconsistencies in Conservative education policy between here and Great Britain.
The poll answers were obtained on proposals for the ending of academic selection via the 11-plus in Northern Ireland The poll results demonstrate widespread rejection by the majority of respondents.
Stephen Elliott, Chairman of the Parental Alliance for Choice in Education, an organisation which represents parental rights in education throughout the U.K. said:
“Michael Gove MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, stated unequivocally on the BBC Andrew Marr Show on Sunday June 1st when asked about academic selection “No, we don’t believe in selection.”
“This message does not seemed to have reached Northern Ireland or the local Conservative party are attempting to con the electorate.”
“Claims to absolutely defend existing grammar schools throughout the UK ring hollow when the Conservative Party have stated that they do not support selection.”
“David Cameron and the Conservative Party must urgently review their decision to abandon support for academic selection in the large areas of England that do not currently have it as this decision leaves their position riddled with inconsistencies.”
Concluding his remarks he said:
“Attempts by representatives of the Conservative party in Northern Ireland to spin a UGOV poll should not be facilitated by the media without fact checking. The implication that the Conservatives oppose the ending of academic selection and the 11-plus because they believe in selection are misleading and false.
“While this finding is not unexpected it is clear that Governmet proposals attacking grammar schools here and in England are likely to negatively affect the entire education system.”
Until a valid and reliable 11-plus replacement meeting international standards is developed the Minister for Education and her officials must continue with the current tests. The message has always been clear that is what parents want. Educationalists and politicians must deliver improvements in choice and standards”
Ends….
Note to editors
Source for Michael Gove MP statement: Transcript from The Andrew Marr Show BBC Sunday June 1st ,2008
Source for poll findings: You Gov Poll commissioned by Conservative Party N.I. with embargo to 7.00am 24th June 2008
The question on the poll asked:, “The Minister of Education Caitriona Ruanewould like to see the current 11+ system in schools scrapped. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this proposal?”
79% of DUP voters, 77% of UUP voters, 75% Alliance Voters, 36% of SDLP voters and 34% of Sinn Feinvoters disagree with Sinn Fein Education Minister, Caitriona Ruane’s plans
What’s happening in your area?
August 24, 2008
Area Based Planning will be used to impose the Ruane Plan. So do you know what is going on under your nose? If not it is time you found out.
Exams Chief doesn’t like examination himself
August 23, 2008
Joining the parade of culprits is none other that the boss of the Education and Skills Authority (ESA) Gavin Boyd. Remember that CCEA, his former employer, are the equivalent of judge, jury and executioner on curriculum and exams matters in Northern Ireland.
The Bain of Social Engineering
August 22, 2008
As promised another early adopter of the anti-11-plus agenda.
The former Vice Chancellor of Queen’s University strove to make his education centre a Russell Group University while demanding the highest degree of selection for applicants. He was also deeply involved in recommendations affecting the schools estate in the report that bears his name. How’s the social engineering programme coming on Sir George?
The culprit list
August 21, 2008
PACE in Northern Ireland want to highlight the role played by various “influencers” on the path to the current educational chaos.
More names will be added prior to the start of the new school year as schools head towards the “unregulated system”
Today’s choice: Dr Wilfred Mulryne former head of Methodist College MCB
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/1615791.stm
Note his highlighting of the change to the curriculum. Mulryne was on CCEAs Council and a key member of the GBA
“It is the system which has lost interest in the pupils”
August 21, 2008
Schools are encouraged to move away from academic subjects because exam experts have ranked some vocational subjects as equivalent to four GCSE passes.
So says a CIvitas report http://www.civitas.org.uk/education/standards.php
. The report goers on to say “Significantly though, it is all too apparent that it is the system which has lost interest in the pupils – largely because they run the risk of not delivering the right A*-C performance through academic GCSEs.”
For exam “experts” in Northern Ireland read CCEA, the Council for Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment.
CCEA have a track record of being responsible for other failures such as the Pupil Profile, the revised curriculum, and rejection of the 11-plus.
Perhaps Caitriona Ruane will pen a letter to the Independent (since she has taken to writing to the newspapers rather than parents as she promised)admitting that her “vision” for Northern Ireland’s numeracy and literacy strategy has produced education chaos not improvement. Her DENI and CCEA has been clouded by ideology and the employment of advice and methods designed to avoid measurement and accountability.
The DENI cannot even provide a list of academic/general or vocational/applied subjects.
See the Independent report:
The Special Needs Education Industry: an expose by analysis
August 18, 2008
SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS: an analysis of a new growth industry £7.50 from the Centre for Policy Studies
Dr John Marks
Are there really twice as many children who need special help at school as there were a few years ago? The proportion of pupils with Statements of Special Educational Need (i.e.those children with the most severe problems) has more than doubled in only eight years (from 1991 to 1999). The proportion of pupils with Special Educational Needs but without Statements (i.e. those children defined as having learning difficulties) has also risen very rapidly. Nearly 1.4 million are now judged to have special needs without statements. One fifth of all children are now classified as having some form of Special Educational Need and one-third of the total education budget (£7.1 billion out of £20 billion) is spent on them. The author suggests that the reason for the explosion in Special Needs may lie in the fact that so many pupils are not taught properly (particularly reading). He calls for the reform of teaching practices; a new definition of categories of disability; the use of more special schools for those children with severe problems; and a National Enquiry to establish accurately the scale of Special Educational Needs and the use – or misuse – of resources.
The idea that almost one in five school children have “special education needs” beggars belief… The worrying explanation is that there has been a huge increase in thenumbers of children who have not been taught to read and write properly in their early school years – leading article in the Daily Mail
The Parental Alliance for Choice in Education have effectively highlighted poor teaching of numeracy and literacy in primary schools in Northern Ireland.
Those in the education establishment responsible for the failings persist in denying their role. Who is telling the truth? The evidence is crystal clear.
Grammar School lessons for Labour and Conservatives
August 18, 2008
While the Northern Ireland Minister for Education, Caitriona Ruane and her band of spineless bureaucrats push on in the direction of imposed comprehensives the evidence from elsewhere shows the folly.
See the Briefing Note on Grammars from the Centre for Policy Studies
See also Three Cheers for Selection.
Both publications are downloadable at no cost.
The Kiss of Death for Grammar Schools
August 17, 2008
The signs of capitulation for non-Catholic grammar schools were evident early in the decade.
http://archive.nics.gov.uk/edu/000106d-edu.htm
Protests to the contrary now sound hollow
Minister of Education appoints her model candidate
August 17, 2008
Education Minister, Caitriona Ruane, has displayed her preference for leaders of the Local Planning Groups responsible for future schooling arrangements.
One appointment, Margaret Martin, former principal of St Catherine’s College in Armagh has a history of difficulties with facts.
The most glaring example was when Mrs Martin appeared before the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee presenting her case for the introduction of comprehensive schools.
It seems that she had great difficulty with the faith and ethnic background figures for the pupils under her pastoral care. Mrs Martin went along with the Northern Ireland Committee chair Sir Patrick Cormack’s idea that 10% of those attending her Irish/English school were Protestants. Despite being afforded multiple opportunities to correct herself she insisted that she was correct until evidence was produced that revealed the truth.
The Belfast Telegraph published a nember of letters on the subject.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/imported/article992141.ece
RECENT events have revealed the lengths to which the Northern Ireland Office and its fellow travellers on Costello are willing to go to deceive parents.
Their current attitude is not to answer constructive criticism but to treat the proposals as a done deal to which no response is now required………….
It must concern parents living in the area where Ms Martin now decides the future of their children’s education provision that she has difficulty with the truth.
Does her appointment surprise anyone involved in the Minister’s education chaos? Hardly so – but will it give confidence about the future of grammar school provision ? Not a chance. One must wonder which other appointtees have similar credentials.
All of the Minister’s latest group are advocates of comprehensive education including the representative from the grammar sector.
