Times letter 02/12/10 The issues at stake for the future of higher education are not only to do with the proposed increase in student tuition fees. We believe that the public university is essential both for cultivating democratic public life and creating the means for individuals to find fulfilment in creative and intellectual pursuits. However, … Continue reading ‘Tuition fees and the need for a proper debate’
Michael Gove’s White Paper
Understandably, much of the attention given to Michael Gove’s White Paper The Importance of Teaching has centred on plans for expanding Academies and Free Schools. One of Michael Gove’s longer term objectives however, is to make radical changes to the relationship between young people and qualifications. The White Paper reaffirms Coalition plans for a return … Continue reading Michael Gove’s White Paper
The class of 2010
Martin Allen Education for Liberation No2 November 2010 Last summer, thousands of well qualified school leavers failed to get into university and thousands more leaving university failed to get ‘graduate’ jobs. The unemployment rate for 18-24 year olds has continued to remain at 17%, well over twice that for the population as a whole and … Continue reading The class of 2010
Stuck generation
Barely making national newspaper columns, the most recent labour market statistics from the ONS continue to provide a grim scenario for anyone seeking reliable employment in the early years of the 21st century. The slight fall in both Labour Force Survey and Claimant Count figures for unemployment merely masks the continued decline of those in … Continue reading Stuck generation
Social Immobility
Patrick Ainley and Martin Allen The chatter about social mobility from a Coalition kicking away welfare services that have kept millions from poverty disguises the fact that there has been no real upward social mobility in Britain for the past 30 years and that nowadays the only social mobility is down. Grand announcements – like … Continue reading Social Immobility
Education’s ‘Creditability Crunch’: the upper secondary years
Martin Allen Forum Vol 52, Number 3, 2010 http://www.wwwords.co.uk/FORUM Improving education in the upper secondary years (generally given the title of 14-19 education) remained a central component of New Labour policy throughout its 13 years of office. The ‘Curriculum 2000’ reforms tried to make A-levels more accessible by introducing an AS and A2 modular system … Continue reading Education’s ‘Creditability Crunch’: the upper secondary years
Review of ‘Lost Generation? New Strategies for youth and Education’
British Journal of Educational Studies, 1467-8527, Volume 58, Issue 3, 2010. Lost Generation? New Strategies for Youth and Education. By M. Allen and P. Ainley Pp 186. London: Continuum. 2010. £16.99 (pbk). ISBN 9781441134707. As the election process for the next leader of the Labour Party in the UK gets underway (summer 2010), some … Continue reading Review of ‘Lost Generation? New Strategies for youth and Education’
Wolf Review of Vocational Education
Martin Allen and Patrick Ainley Education minister Michael Gove has commissioned Professor Alison Wolf to carry out a review of vocational education. As Wolf notes in her letter ‘calling for evidence’ the review is part of a new government approach to qualifications, but it won’t be examining the detailed content of vocational qualifications but on … Continue reading Wolf Review of Vocational Education
An Open Letter to John Humphrys
USUAL MUDDLE OVER EDUCATION Patrick Ainley The BBC recently ran a series of programmes on the mess that education – and schools in particular – have become. With John Humphrys’ ‘Unequal Opportunities’ (BBC2 20/9) the Corporation gave it their best shot and yet what were the conclusions of this tour of England’s schools? Humphrys endorsed … Continue reading An Open Letter to John Humphrys
Education and the reserve army of labour
PATRICK AINLEY Post-16 educator No 59 Introduction Andrew Gamble’s 2009 book The Spectre at the Feast follows Marx in seeing ‘One of the key functions of economic crisis is to reconstitute the reserve army of labour’ (p.47). As Gamble argues, this previously occurred at the time of the last recession which ended ‘the long boom’ … Continue reading Education and the reserve army of labour
Education, Economy and Society 