Higher Education -

[Dizzy]

[Peter T]

Perhaps we will have military police when they leave Afghanistan?

[observer]

That son of some old pop singer, who's apologised for swinging on a flag at the cenotaph - seems he didn't know what the cenotaph was - and he's a history student: grounds for withdrawing tax-payer support for this so-called education or what?!

[Bazj]

His dad was in some group called Pink Floyd or something.....

 

I remember them as a bunch of wrinklies from the 70's who did videos with walking hammers.... the joys of drugs has obviously passed from father to son!!

[observer]

I guess his Dad can afford the new fees, so what's his gripe?!

[Dizzy]

More protests planned....Scotland Yard in talks with Northern Irish police over the possible deployment of water cannon to deal with violence in future demonstrations. (don't we have our own then can't they use a fire hose )

 

Home Secretary Theresa May yesterday said her approval would be required and made clear she did not think the tactic necessary.

 

NOT NECESSARY Maybe she should go out on the streets and try and control the ring leading group who call themselves the Education Activist Network and all the other low lifes who follow them.

 

Give me the water cannon I'll sort the buggers out... some of them could do with a wash too

[Peter T]

And put some dye in the water as well.

[observer]

Why oh why do the Brits keep beating themselves up over these issues? We should have a National Police Force, part of which is reserved for riot duties (like the French CRS), with the full armoury of crowd dispersal equipment available to them. Water cannon and rubber bullets etc have been in use in the UK for over 30 years - in Ulster - so what's the problem. Just get on with it.

[enlightened]

Water cannon, Rubber bullets, bring it on.... that will be the thoughts of the activists. If it is a cause that you passionately believe in then you thrive and prosper on the oxygen of publicity. Student leaders might not condone the acts of violence but they will have been secretely cheering every broken window and every baton charge. Peaceful protests six months into a five year term achieve nothing, lets not forget that the laws introduced to restrict the right to protest have probably been endorsed by the same government that your trying to persuade is wrong. Why cant people understand that to achieve maximum effect then you need maximum exposure. It does make me chuckle when the media question why postmen strike at Christmas, fire fighters strike on bonfire night and baggage handlers strike on bank holidays. Yes we'll give you the right to strike, the right to protest, but do it on our terms when nobody will notice and it has no affect!

[observer]

Precisely, but the State has a responsibilty for maintaining law and order, otherwise we have anarchy; which I doubt the majority of folk would relish. It needs to be understood, that embarking on a violent rampage of vandalism, WILL result in painfull consequences for the perpetrators. To avoid such energetic protests, it seems wiser young heads are now resorting to cyber protests from the comfort of their own home!

[Dizzy]

Enlightened you're probably right there ..... but what is the alternative?

 

Should the authoities just leave them too it and ban all reporting in the hope they will get bored or will the trouble makers then just go onto bigger and 'better' ways of proving whatever it is they are trying to prove

[observer]

The new battle is in cyber space.

[Dizzy]

Are we not picking up on the Cyber Space bit Obs as you've mentioned it twice now.

 

Think I'm missing something.. what are they upto then

[enlightened]

Theory NO.1, The tuition fee issue is less about funding and more about who should be educated. Nobody reads or analyses the Bills that are going through parliament, instead they believe what they read in the papers, they believe a well delivered soundbite and they believe that we are all in this together. Educate people instead of training them to pass exams and they might start asking questions, they might even start becoming reasoned, rational and objective.

The Government is saying that it is giving power back to the localities and the 'people'. This is all well and good but we know who will benefit from this so called relaxation and it wont be the masses. How many 'free' schools will be set up in Bewsey, Dallam, Longford or any other district North of the Canal. Sorry about the rant but this does seem like a forum where people listen to all sides of the argument no matter what political persuasion they may be.

 

PS. ive called it NO.1 because if you rip it to bits I can think of another 10...

[Dizzy]

I completely agree with everything you say.

 

It does worry me that powers are being given back to the local authorities although WILL it be easier to point them and the money in the right direction ie WHERE IT IS REALLY NEEDED or indeed where it is NOT actually wanted regardless of wether it is north or south of the canal ?

 

I guess the answer to that will still be a NO eh

 

Stale mate, bad decisions and wasted money whoever is 'in charge' in my opinion

[observer]

Ironically, it was Tory Bliar who opened the door onto these pseudo-elite " accadamies "; which are now about to rob funding from "sink" schools in the most deprived areas. And to make matters worse, with these attempts to micro-manage education, they involved "faith" in the equation, to further divide our society with religious bigotry as well as class. It would seem logical to target funding at the greatest areas of challenge, so at least producing adults who can read, write and articulate; rather than reinforcing advantage. Basically, we're drifting back into a Dickensian world, where the State is in full retreat and the hope is, for charity to take over.

[Bazj]

Well when the targets are lowered to allow so many kids to go to university and courses like stained- glass studies, stand-up comedy or surfing studies I think it is about time we got back to a state where we actually tell some of these kids that they are just not good enough to go to Uni.

 

Nu Liebour were all about equality but their idea of equality was that everyne was equal when clearly they weren't!

 

Get the kids onto work experience, clearing snow, Clearing litter; getting up in a morning and all that rather than staying in bed until dinner time and attending Uni 3 days a week to do a 2 hour lesson and then classing it a full time course. The amount of time they actually spend in the classroom at Uni on a so-called full time course would have only qualified as a part time course 25 years ago

[observer]

I'm not disagreeing with your point about mickey mouse degrees and dumbed down exams. Education should be a meritocracy, especially at the higher level; and should be designed to meet the economic needs of the State, in terms of the types of professionals it produces. However, lower down the ladder of development, we need to ensure that everyone has the opportunity of getting on the ladder in the first place, and attaining at least sufficient numerousy and literacy to meet the needs of employers. Niether is it all about money; the quality of teachers in the most challenged areas, the level of legal assistance they are given to enforce dicipline, and the number of hours kids are actually at school need to be reviewed. Aside from producing Doctors, Engineers, Scientists etc; we also need to produce highly skilled tradesmen etc, to give us a competitive edge in a cut throat global economy - it's a team effort - and our team happens to be, team G.B.

[Bazj]

We used to have that Obs, it was called the 11 plus. Kids all went to their local primary school. They all were taught in exactly the same way and I personally can't recall one person who couldn't read and write who came out of Bewsey Primary School.

 

The 11 plus weeded out the more academic kids and put them into Grammar school and the other kids went to the comprehensives to do the "manual" type of learning

 

Everyone had the same chance, everyone had the same education and there were no gray areas.

 

What is the problem with that?

[observer]

Nothing wrong with that (you forgot the Tech School btw); except, I don't personally think one "one off exam" should decide all; but should include assessments of ability and aptitude throughout, to stream kids into the optimum career path.