Martin Allen National Curriculum proposals in various subjects are now out for consultation. While it is important that teachers, trade unions and subject associations respond to these, it’s also important to develop a more general critique of the underlying principles behind them. The new National Curriculum represents a reactionary step back –part of a more … Continue reading National Curriculum: principles and practices
Author: Martin Allen
National Apprenticeship Week : but do employers really want them?
As part of national apprenticeship week, David Cameron has called for apprenticeships to become the "new norm" for school leavers who decide against going to university -wanting work-based training to sit "at the heart of our mission to rebuild the economy" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21734560) Wanting the UK to emulate Germany –or at least post-war Germany! – Cameron … Continue reading National Apprenticeship Week : but do employers really want them?
University numbers. A Great Reversal?
Even though there are still about seven million full- and part-time students in further and higher adult education, half a million of them postgraduates, already overall undergraduate home applications to English universities were down by about 10% for 2012, though UCAS data still shows applications from school leavers, even those from less well-off back grounds, … Continue reading University numbers. A Great Reversal?
Guardian letter 07/03/13
Putting two articles together http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2013/mar/06/time-money-schools-for-profit?INTCMP=SRCH http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/mar/04/schools-budget-coalition-row-escalates?INTCMP=SRCH George Monbiot relates how 'With threats and bribes our schools are forced to be "free"' (Tues 5 March), while you report in the same issue, 'Schools budgets could face cuts as the coalition row over spending escalates'. So it is predictable that private investors could step in as 'the saviours' of … Continue reading Guardian letter 07/03/13
Review of The Great Reversal
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/536390455 The election of the Conservative-Lib Dem Coalition in 2010 brought about a relentless series of attacks on English education (devolution means that the situation is different in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland). For the most part these attacks are understood as the commodification and marketisation of education. While Allen & Ainley do not dispute … Continue reading Review of The Great Reversal
Book Review
Patrick Ainley reviews Dead Man Working Carl Cederstrom, Peter Fleming Zero Books, Winchester, 2012. 76pp., £9.99 pb http://marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviewofbooks/reviews/2013/709 '.....Cederstrom and Fleming accept a post-ideological reality in which there is no alternative to a capitalism that has outstripped any useful or progressive function it once had and yet is ‘more powerful and influential than ever’. Thus, … Continue reading Book Review
More working: but for less
The latest ONS labour market statistics for Q4 of 2012 show little change. Unemployment has fallen marginally – a drop of 14000 using the Labour Force Survey method and down 12,500 from December 2012 - using the claimant count. The employment rate for those aged from 16 to 64 was 71.5%. There were 29.73 million … Continue reading More working: but for less
Dent to Government’s ‘workfare’ policy
The graduate forced to work at Poundland for free has won an appeal against the Coalition’s ‘workfare’ plans. Cait Reilly, 24, from Birmingham, had argued that being made to work in the discount shop for nothing while she looked for a permanent job was illegal. The High Court ruling should mean anyone loosing jobseeker's allowance … Continue reading Dent to Government’s ‘workfare’ policy
Backtrack on the Ebacc but the Great Reversal goes on
Martin Allen and Patrick Ainley Backtrack on the Ebacc but the Great Reversal goes on To general rejoicing, Michael Gove has been forced into a humiliating retreat in his plans to replace GCSEs by English Baccalaureate Certificates (EBCs) in core subjects. The damning report by the Parliamentary sub-committee allowed the Lib Dems to call time … Continue reading Backtrack on the Ebacc but the Great Reversal goes on
New Book ‘The Great Reversal’
The Great Reversal. Young People, Education and Employment in a Declining Economy Martin Allen and Patrick Ainley ISBN 978-0-9575538-0-4 Developing the arguments put forward in their previous books Education make you fick, innit? and Lost Generation? New strategies for youth and education, Allen and Ainley provide a chilling analysis of the employment difficulties facing young … Continue reading New Book ‘The Great Reversal’
Education, Economy and Society 