Political Economy » Society

It Will End In Tears, But For Whom?

Charles Vickers — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 21:25:25 +0000

Goave’s White Paper “The Importance of Teaching” is based on England’s falling position in the PISA league tables. Note that the problem is not falling performance, that has remained basically the same, but other countries have improved. PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) is an OECD programme to measure performance of 15 year old’s. PISA is not a value-free test of knowledge in the English sense. It is designed to support and embed the OECD culture and values. (The hidden curriculum of PISA – the promotion of neo-liberal policy by educational assessment by Michael Uljens 12.7 2007). So the English performance may just be bloody-mindedness! Certainly in tests like TIMMS, which take as a starting point the national curricula of countries, and which do use value-free tests, England has been performing well.

GHTime Code(s): nc nc nc

City Bonuses Are Not Enough!

Charles Vickers — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 09:15:29 +0000

The Financial Times reported today that 35% of City professionals were dissatisfied by the size of their bonus!

Apparently some 79% of them got a bonus this year, paid out of a bonus pool of £7 billion which was much the same as the previous year.

GHTime Code(s): nc nc nc

The English Bac!

Charles Vickers — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 16:41:16 +0000

Michael Gove has decided that that there will be a new qualification. The English Bac, awarded to students with good passes in English, maths, science, a language, and history or geography.

Englishness-What is it?

English Yankee — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 12:19:15 +0000

I am English. I am probably more English than most people. I can trace my ancestry back to before the Act of Settlement in 1707. Lucky me. However on paper I am American and can not vote or have a passport. As my son pointed out to me America is not part of the Commonwealth. Revolution put paid to that.

Isn’t It Time For The CBI To Stop Whinging?

Charles Vickers — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 10:49:17 +0000

James Boxall reported in the 1st October 2010 Kindle edition of the Financial times that the CBI has said that the new rules restricting foreign workers from outside the EU must be reviewed. Why?

GHTime Code(s): nc