It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction. … [The bullshitter] does not reject the authority of the truth. … He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of truth than lies are. … Bullshit is unaviodable whenever circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about. Thus the production of bullshit is stimulated whenever a person’s obligations or opportunities to speak about some topic exceed his knowledge of the facts that are relevant to that topic. This discrepancy is common in public life, where people are frequently impelled … to speak extensively about matters of which they are to some degree ignorant.
11-Plus ends:PACE warning on Pupil Profile proves accurate.
November 21, 2008
While UK-wide attention is directed to the final 11-plus exam today the elephant in the room is the vacuum deliberately created by the Department of Education. There is no certainty about a test for next year.
The DENI have tried for years to convince parents that a Pupil Profile will “inform” their choice for a post-primary school. However the publication of a report from CCEA suggests that their efforts have once again fallen short.
CCEA Final Evaluation Report on the implementation of the InCAS computer-based assessments and the Annual Pupil Profile Report in Primary Schools during the transitional year 2007/2008A
Although many parents recognised the work required by teachers to produce this new report there were a number of aspects they criticised. Large number of parents were dissatisfied with the format and content of their child’s Annual Pupil Profile Report.
Parents’ main criticism was that it did not contain grades/marks or a comparison with their child’s peers which they deemed to be an essential component of any school report.
Celebrations on the demise of the 11-plus are premature. More to follow…..
CCEA and the sectarian secret
January 22, 2008
Reform of Northern Ireland schools – another attack on all that Protestants hold dear?
It must surely puzzle outsiders that grammar schools of Protestant and Catholic ethos adopt opposite positions on selection at 11. The SDLP, Sinn Fein and the Catholic Church oppose selection and embrace the Revised Curriculum while the DUP and Ulster Unionists see a continued role for grammar schools. It is striking that there are no Catholic grammars among the 25 grammar schools who propose setting their own entrance tests in order to retain their grammar school identities. Furthermore, Catholic politicians and the Catholic Church have been staunch defenders of the Revised Curriculum which seeks to blur the distinctions between school subjects such as IT, mathematics and English through the introduction of incoherent “cross-curricular skills.” Recently the Irish News published a blistering attack on the 25 Protestant grammars who wish to retain selection at 11.
A careful reading of the work of Britain’s leading educational philosopher, John White, reveals that Protestant support for a curriculum comprising distinct subjects, with learning assessed through objective testing stretches back 150 years. According to White, curricula such as the Revised Curriculum, which eschew objective testing and blur the distinctions between the different school subjects, strike at the core values of Protestantism. Given that John White was commissioned by the Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) to evaluate the Revised Curriculum, senior figures in CCEA must have been aware that they were designing a curriculum at odds with a Protestant worldview. However, the evaluation report has never been made public and when it appears on CCEA documentation it is accompanied by the word “unpublished.”
CCEA’s Carmel Gallagher described reform of the curriculum as a “Trojan Horse” for effecting radical change in schools and the Education Minister drew parallels between the radical nature of school reform in Northern Ireland and the partition of Ireland. A cursory read of White’s latest book – Intelligence, Destiny and Education – may help explain the Catholic Church’s reluctance to sign up to the cause of maintaining Northern Ireland’s truly world class education system. More puzzling, in the light of White’s analysis, is the role of the Protestant churches in embracing the Revised Curriculum and the abolition of selection at 11.
Where do Grammar Schools actually stand on selection at 11?
January 14, 2008
Parents expect more than polite platitudes from Heads and Governors of Grammar Schools
Institution, Janet Williamson, and the
chairman of the school’s board of governors,
Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, are sending out
mixed messages over Caitriona Ruane’s
“visionary proposals” on education.
In practised doublespeak, the language and
commentary of the Inst leaders adds to the
plethora of polite platitudes on the future of
academic selection and grammar schools.
Parents and the public expect more from
those entrusted with responsibility for
leadership and welcome evidence-based
approaches to change.
The seeming internal confusion now made
public may emanate from the roles of Sir
Kenneth in his various guises as a
benefactor. A sample of his hats, caps and
scarves include: spokesman for the
Governing Bodies Association (GBA), a
group representing voluntary but not the
controlled grammars.
The GBA are dominated by the Roman
Catholic grammars and it is a matter of
record that the trustees of those schools are
opposed to academic selection.
Speaking for the GBA Bloomfield-endorsed
CCEA’s Pupil Profile, the instrument touted
by eminent heads such as Wilfred Mulryne,
of Methodist College, and the General
Teaching Council as a reliable and valid 11-
plus replacement instrument to quantify for
parents their child’s attainments.
The GBA have yet to disavow member
schools from support of CCEA’s failed
instrument. It is of interest that Bloomfield
lives happily with this dichotomy.
Sir Kenneth is also a patron of the
Integrated Education Fund whose mission
is the promotion and development of a
separate so called all-ability sector. Is he
ideologically naïve or unwittingly party to a
reverse take-over of grammar schools?
The intake of A-grade pupils at Slemish
College, an integrated school using
academic selection, doubled last year.
Which of the two sectors does Sir Kenneth
support, for it cannot be both?
Sir Kenneth Bloomfield is also spokesman
for the Association for Quality Education
(AQE). This grouping comprises the GBA,
Concerned Parents for Education (a group
dominated by principals, governors and
teachers) and the Confederation of Former
Grammar Pupils’ Association.
This cross-pollinating collective also
support the Pupil Profile approach,
although a minority claim they will now
offer a common entrance examination to their schools.
The Royal Belfast Academical Institution
have a mixed ability intake distinguished
from Integrated comprehensives only by
their Category B status which absolves
them of the requirement to admit pupils
from a three-mile environs such as the
Markets, Sandy Row, Divis, the Shankill
and Crumlin Roads. The fees of some £700
may also filter out the bright
disadvantaged.
Perhaps Miss Williamson and Sir Kenneth
will put their heads together and tell us how
they will widen access via Inst’s admission
criteria?
The Royal Belfast Academical Institution
needs to confront the evidence from the
London School of Economics on the
widening socio-economic gap with more
than platitudes. Money rather than ability
would seem to determine a child’s chance of
future success at RBAI. If there is evidence
to the contrary, no doubt it will be
forthcoming.
