I'm not sure whether the place we inhabit appears to be in educational turmoil and decline because of the imminent coming together of schools to form academies or whether we are seeing something that is even more worrying.
Actually, as far as I am concerned, and regardless of the reasons, I don't think it can be any more worrying as we have children at varying stages of education, primary and secondary, and they appear to be suffering.
When you get letters from teachers that are spelt wrongly, hear of lessons where the teacher has to be searched for by the kids, bored of waiting, because they haven't turned up and teachers who appear to lack even a rudimentary knowledge of the subject they are supposed to be teaching, one gets just a little concerned!
We live in a place which had five secondary schools serving the educational needs of those living here. Then came the spectre of BSF (Building Schools for the Future) which decided that one failing secondary would become an academy and the sixth forms from the other four schools would be closed to form another (sixth form) academy. Buildings were knocked down and things started to happen with the sixth form provision and then things changed and it transpired that the money was gone. No replacements for the demolished buildings and educational bedlam!
Then things moved a pace and suddenly the secondary school where the sixth form is to be is also to be an academy and the remaining three schools are to become a multi-campus academy too! Five become three and five sixth forms become one in the name of giving us more choice! Seems the mathematics is as poor as what the speling is!
Teacher I've spoken to are looking at their options regarding jobs, after all one of the big benefits of the academies (for those who run them) is the fact that teachers don't have to be registered teachers, anyone can be a teacher at an academy! The upshot of this is that you can bring in the best from industry and commerce, but as you have to pay for what you get and there are no national pay scales from non-registered teachers, I am assuming that financial expediency rather than academic prowess will dictate here. Pay peanuts and get monkeys appears to the potential here.
Each member of staff negotiates their own salary and they apparently sign a non-disclosure agreement, which means collective bargaining and parity goes out of the window - ingredients for a happy and content ship or one containing mistrust and dissatisfaction?
Not only that but the government have now changed the academy programme such that whilst, initially, those companies and groups looking to run an academy had to bring in money, this has progressed via a mere promise of money to the situation now where we just hand over our schools and pay them!
The schools are outside the freedom of information act and are effectively a law unto themselves. The governors, as they once were, vanish and there is potential for one parent on the board, but this is not a requirement and so it will be a 'done to', rather than 'done with' situation.
All in all, what we appear to have before us is a most unsatisfactory removal of our schools from the LEA (Local Education Authority) state school system into an independent and potentially unsatisfactory general school system. Students are cherry-picked to get the grades that win prizes and for the lower level students the path they will follow will set them on the way to blue-collar, drone-like, futures that the comprehensive education system removed.
All in all, the recipe for a decline in education and a destruction of the state school system which has served us well and once made us the envy of many nations. Not any more I fear!
Still, they're looking at the NHS next, plaster anyone?
Pax
Showing posts with label religious education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label religious education. Show all posts
Monday, 28 March 2011
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Student Visas - babies and Bathwater
The ongoing debate about the government's intentions to tighten the regulations relating to student visas is a sad and sorry tale of knee-jerk versus commercial interests of academic institutions.
It wasn't that long ago that I would find myself visiting Lunar House, Wellesley Road, Croydon, home of the Immigration and Nationalisation department (IMD) to help students gain visas. This task also took me to a detention centre in Harmondsworth and various other sad places as those who had entered illegally or used bogus places of learning were caught up with and dealt with. As a minister in a place where many of them had become members I found that this was a sad and shady area of life.
The problem is that there are a number of places that support student visa applications and do ensure that the student attends for the required hours each week, but there are many where this is not the case. The problem is that whilst there is the opportunity for those who have studied here to take up post-qualification work experience there is also a sizeable number of people who come and vanish into the shady world of illegal employment and life as an illegal immigrant.
We operated a Bible school and as such were sponsors for many of those who came in. Sometimes those who were already in the country were required to leave for another nearby place (ie. France) where the visa application was made and usually permission was granted.
The problem is that I have met many who were illegally in the country and many more who had come in as students at places which neither intended to see their students do the minimum study hours or were even equipped or able to teach even if the people were there.
I understand the £40bn that the education trade is reported to bring in is an important part of our economy and the the £1.5bn that ESOL/EFL courses generate, along with the jobs in teaching and support, are also of great importance, but . . .
We need to ensure that those who come are indeed bona fide students and that those who offer courses are equipped to do so. Tightening up of regulations and monitoring the places and people who put on courses and attend them would be a good starting place.
there is a great danger that we will lose out in terms of money, technological and other advances (after all, many of those who will be targeted by the state are research students) and jobs.
Caution is always a good attribute. Caution and intelligence are even better - let's hope we see this issue sorted.
Pax
It wasn't that long ago that I would find myself visiting Lunar House, Wellesley Road, Croydon, home of the Immigration and Nationalisation department (IMD) to help students gain visas. This task also took me to a detention centre in Harmondsworth and various other sad places as those who had entered illegally or used bogus places of learning were caught up with and dealt with. As a minister in a place where many of them had become members I found that this was a sad and shady area of life.
The problem is that there are a number of places that support student visa applications and do ensure that the student attends for the required hours each week, but there are many where this is not the case. The problem is that whilst there is the opportunity for those who have studied here to take up post-qualification work experience there is also a sizeable number of people who come and vanish into the shady world of illegal employment and life as an illegal immigrant.
We operated a Bible school and as such were sponsors for many of those who came in. Sometimes those who were already in the country were required to leave for another nearby place (ie. France) where the visa application was made and usually permission was granted.
The problem is that I have met many who were illegally in the country and many more who had come in as students at places which neither intended to see their students do the minimum study hours or were even equipped or able to teach even if the people were there.
I understand the £40bn that the education trade is reported to bring in is an important part of our economy and the the £1.5bn that ESOL/EFL courses generate, along with the jobs in teaching and support, are also of great importance, but . . .
We need to ensure that those who come are indeed bona fide students and that those who offer courses are equipped to do so. Tightening up of regulations and monitoring the places and people who put on courses and attend them would be a good starting place.
there is a great danger that we will lose out in terms of money, technological and other advances (after all, many of those who will be targeted by the state are research students) and jobs.
Caution is always a good attribute. Caution and intelligence are even better - let's hope we see this issue sorted.
Pax
Sunday, 20 February 2011
Religious Education - Observations and potential solutions
It wasn't that long ago that Ofsted were telling us that the quality of religious education in schools was declining and that something like 20% of schools were failing and providing inadequate religious education.
If we ignore the inane mutterings and protestations of humanists and secularists who drone on, respectively and, endlessly about their belief (or rather lack of it) being included in the RE curriculum or made optional we can see their are some obvious issues and some equally obvious solutions.
Religious education is all about educating schoolchildren about matters religious! It is supposed to do what it says on the tin, couldn't be simpler. Now the first problem is that many of the RE teachers I have met at various functions, conferences and the like are people of no, or perhaps limited, faith. I have yet to meet any language teachers who are unable to converse in the languages they teach or dialogue about the finer grammatical points and the the culture of the nations what speak their lingo! I have rarely met anyone who, unlike the teachers when I was a child, was a practising member of any of the mainline faith groups and could dialogue regarding their faith or any faith with any degree of confidence.
Solution the first
Religious education teachers need to be people of faith and need to be specialists in their chosen subject. Religion is not merely a matter of geography - we're in England and so we're Christian, Anil is from India and so has to be a Hindu, etc. I don't expect theological degrees, but I do expect understanding of the core values, practices and outworking.
----------------------------------------------------
The next problem is one which if I understand the baccalaureate (B) correctly is set to increase. Religious Education might still be a 'core' subject, but it's points what wins prizes and there don't seem to be any attached to RE with regard to the IB. It might be a core subject but it, like assemblies which are now non-religious mumblings before the first lesson in many places, is is an observance rather than engagement role these days, and this appears to be likely to descend further rather than pick up.
Solution the second
Secularism is taught in every subject outside of the religious Education classroom. Everything is secular and this is naive and rather than supporting choice (which secularists claim to want but really mean 'their choice') secularists lay the seeds of dissent, conflict, misunderstanding and sectarian differences.
Regardless of the point-winning examination subjects, there is a need within a balanced society for people to have some understanding of the beliefs, attitudes and actions of others because of their faith. This is what brings peaceful co-existence. What point is there in having an intellectually equipped people who can't live alongside others (the secularist problem in a nutshell). So the solution is that we must teach faith issues - simple isn't it!
----------------------------------------------------
Humanists drone on about not being included in the RE syllabus, but in case they haven't realised it, they are actually a 'non-religious' bunch of often confused and fatalistic people who come under the classification of 'philosophy' (flawed or skewed philosophy more often than not, but hey ho - it's an 'ology'!).
One school I engaged with a few years back had an anti-Christian, alternative faith, head of RE. This person used the lessons to proselytise (unsuccessfully) and to attack and ridicule the beliefs of the faiths they were supposed to be teaching about. With this talk of 'Big Society' the reality is that 'Big Society' is what Christians are, and have been since we first set up shop - it who Jesus is!
Solution the third
Those of us who are trained in matters theological and are able to dialogue and discuss regarding other faiths, the differences and the similarities, who are equipped to explain the philosophy of religion and the realities of faith need to get off of our fat backsides and offer ourselves to the schools. I visit schools and do issues like the 'shoah' and genocide, other faiths, ethical issues, moral choices and whatever else they ask me to bring in. I do this from infant through to 'A' level and find that open and honest engagement is always well received, even when agreement might not be forthcoming.
----------------------------------------------------
So, if you are someone who complains about the falling standards of Religious Education in our schools here's the bottom-line (honestly it is):
Stop complaining and get out there and be the difference!
If we ignore the inane mutterings and protestations of humanists and secularists who drone on, respectively and, endlessly about their belief (or rather lack of it) being included in the RE curriculum or made optional we can see their are some obvious issues and some equally obvious solutions.
Religious education is all about educating schoolchildren about matters religious! It is supposed to do what it says on the tin, couldn't be simpler. Now the first problem is that many of the RE teachers I have met at various functions, conferences and the like are people of no, or perhaps limited, faith. I have yet to meet any language teachers who are unable to converse in the languages they teach or dialogue about the finer grammatical points and the the culture of the nations what speak their lingo! I have rarely met anyone who, unlike the teachers when I was a child, was a practising member of any of the mainline faith groups and could dialogue regarding their faith or any faith with any degree of confidence.
Solution the first
Religious education teachers need to be people of faith and need to be specialists in their chosen subject. Religion is not merely a matter of geography - we're in England and so we're Christian, Anil is from India and so has to be a Hindu, etc. I don't expect theological degrees, but I do expect understanding of the core values, practices and outworking.
----------------------------------------------------
The next problem is one which if I understand the baccalaureate (B) correctly is set to increase. Religious Education might still be a 'core' subject, but it's points what wins prizes and there don't seem to be any attached to RE with regard to the IB. It might be a core subject but it, like assemblies which are now non-religious mumblings before the first lesson in many places, is is an observance rather than engagement role these days, and this appears to be likely to descend further rather than pick up.
Solution the second
Secularism is taught in every subject outside of the religious Education classroom. Everything is secular and this is naive and rather than supporting choice (which secularists claim to want but really mean 'their choice') secularists lay the seeds of dissent, conflict, misunderstanding and sectarian differences.
Regardless of the point-winning examination subjects, there is a need within a balanced society for people to have some understanding of the beliefs, attitudes and actions of others because of their faith. This is what brings peaceful co-existence. What point is there in having an intellectually equipped people who can't live alongside others (the secularist problem in a nutshell). So the solution is that we must teach faith issues - simple isn't it!
----------------------------------------------------
Humanists drone on about not being included in the RE syllabus, but in case they haven't realised it, they are actually a 'non-religious' bunch of often confused and fatalistic people who come under the classification of 'philosophy' (flawed or skewed philosophy more often than not, but hey ho - it's an 'ology'!).
One school I engaged with a few years back had an anti-Christian, alternative faith, head of RE. This person used the lessons to proselytise (unsuccessfully) and to attack and ridicule the beliefs of the faiths they were supposed to be teaching about. With this talk of 'Big Society' the reality is that 'Big Society' is what Christians are, and have been since we first set up shop - it who Jesus is!
Solution the third
Those of us who are trained in matters theological and are able to dialogue and discuss regarding other faiths, the differences and the similarities, who are equipped to explain the philosophy of religion and the realities of faith need to get off of our fat backsides and offer ourselves to the schools. I visit schools and do issues like the 'shoah' and genocide, other faiths, ethical issues, moral choices and whatever else they ask me to bring in. I do this from infant through to 'A' level and find that open and honest engagement is always well received, even when agreement might not be forthcoming.
----------------------------------------------------
So, if you are someone who complains about the falling standards of Religious Education in our schools here's the bottom-line (honestly it is):
Stop complaining and get out there and be the difference!
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