This is a guest blog post from Mr B Senior. Have to say that I agree:
Reading the Times yesterday I came across an amazing piece headlined: “Domination by private schools is indefensible, declares Gove”. Allowing for the odd introduction of new words like “forbad” the old rag generally does a pretty good job in news reporting so I’ve got to assume that Gove is quoted with at least 80% accuracy
Addressing a conference hosted by Brighton College he moaned on about the fact that privately educated people were to be found in the upper echelons of many professions and administrations. He appeared to be calling not for a compulsory quota system to dilute the situation with leavers from state schools but for more effort by teaching staffs in such schools to encourage ambition in their charges.
Hear hear! say I. Most groups, be they gangs, teams, clubs,or even political bodies need leadership and this is essential if GBUK is to progress from its present parlous state. If private education provides people with ambition and leadership qualities then let’s have more of them OR persuade the NUT etc to stand up to the Dept. of Ed. and do the job they signed up for – EDUCATING OUR KIDS!
If we continue to turn out masses of pupils trained to pass tests instead of being taught how to learn for themselves we’ll stagnate. We need basic spelling and maths skills not experts in ticking boxes. If we don’t change we’ll never overtake or even catch up with countries like Germany (Boo), France (Boo),Italy and dare I say Belgium.
Carry on Mr Gove.