Monday 1 March 2010

Do 'Think Tanks' Ever Do Any, Umm, Actual Thinking..?

Because it certainly doesn't seem like it to me:
Permanent school exclusions unfairly punish vulnerable children and should be scrapped, an independent think tank warns today.
Oh, FFS..! What sort of 'think tank' wou...

Ah:
More than 75 per cent of children expelled by governors had special educational needs, and more than a quarter of those were on the autistic spectrum, a Demos study finds.
Well, it just had to be Demos, didn't it?
Difficult youngsters would benefit more by remaining the responsibility of their head teacher and given special support within their own school, the report argues.
But wait, don't we alrerady throw money had over fist at them? Why, yes. Yes, we do:
The report claims that excluded children get a far poorer quality of teaching compared with those kept in mainstream classrooms, although three times more money is being spent on children in pupil referral units.
Doesn't that tell you something, think-tankers? That maybe there's an unrealistic expectation that these children should be capable of achieving the same as the others in the first place?
But a teachers' union criticised the report's findings. Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: "This report and its recommendations take a rather simplistic view of a complex problem. It is premised on a belief that children and young people are lost to the system when they are excluded. There is no evidence for this. If it does occur, then the local authority would not be fulfilling its legal duty to provide full-time education."
Who are you going to believe, a teacher's rep or a bunch of progressives sitting in a smart London office somewhere?
She accused the think tank of not fully costing its proposals and effectively "signing a blank cheque on the issue".
Well, why not? It isn't their money, after all. And looking at the makeup of Demos, their children won't be going to schools plagued by 'difficult youngsters'...

Ms Keates said many of the proposals recommended in the report – such as using nurture groups and learning mentors – are already used in schools. "Nothing in the report warrants a conclusion that permanent exclusion should be abolished," she said.
No, indeed.

But I bet we haven't heard the last of this...

11 comments:

Weekend Yachtsman said...

Most of those kids should be in special schools of course.

Many of them used to be.

But - of course - NuLab closed all the special schools.

It's hard to regard the result as "unforeseen" consquences. After all, most ordinary schoolchildren could have predicted what would happen, and many did. But somehow it escaped the "experts".

And we still think the State is the best way to provide and manage education?

patently said...

Julia, Julia, Julia.

You're forgetting. It's only the violent little brats that matter. Their victims count for naught. We must look after the horrible little ones, and keep them in the school where they are comfy, so that they can continue their reign of terror over the nice kids who want to learn and will grow up to be middle class.

Only in this way will we finally and irrevocably destroy the middle class.

And so, this is all about preventing class hatred. By removing at source the class that we hate.

Dr Evil said...

These educationally subnormal children (isn't this what special educational needs children are?)shouldn't be in mainstream schools. They should be in special schools geared to helping problem children, instead of being in normal schools and buggering up the education of the other 99% of the class. Hang on.......yhere used to be special schools once upon a time. I expect they were shut because of costs. Another load of bolox like care in the community.

It doesn't work! But I suppose in a drive for equality, sharing out the misery equally is fine......oh wait, most of these scumbag politicians send their children to fee paying autism et al free schools.

lovegoats said...

Special Schools are still around but the clientele still lack either a chromosome or a father. 'Borstals' became 'Pupil Referral Units' - now renamed to 'Short Stay Schools' - nicknamed 'drive thru' in our office

English Viking said...

Has anyone considered the very inexpensive option of thrashing the little blighters every time they misbehave. Worked for me.

TDK said...

Who are you going to believe, a teacher's rep or a bunch of progressives sitting in a smart London office somewhere?

Option C?

Brian, follower of Deornoth said...

Tsk tsk, English Viking. If you thrashed them, they'd behave. If they behaved, they wouldn't have 'special needs'. If they don't have 'special needs', there'd be no extra money for teaching them. Then there'd be sackings among teachers.

Can't have that, now, can we? Far better to have a riot in the class and no learning, because that way we get more money.

English Viking said...

Brian,

I see my mistake now. I was using common sense.

The Great Simpleton said...

OK, so why don't we leave all the disruptive kids in mainstream schools and send the rest to special schools where all the money is spent. That way we end up with at least some children getting an education.

JuliaM said...

"Most of those kids should be in special schools of course.

Many of them used to be."


Indeed. Yet another 'advance' to chalk up to the well-meaning and the do-gooders...

"And so, this is all about preventing class hatred. By removing at source the class that we hate."

But who will then do all the work, and pay all the taxes? ;)

"It doesn't work! But I suppose in a drive for equality, sharing out the misery equally is fine......oh wait, most of these scumbag politicians send their children to fee paying autism et al free schools."

Naturally! They don't need to worry about the consequences of their decisions, because they are always insulated from them.

"...now renamed to 'Short Stay Schools' - nicknamed 'drive thru' in our office"

I'm really glad I never went into education, I can't imagine how the good ones cope...

JuliaM said...

"Has anyone considered the very inexpensive option of thrashing the little blighters every time they misbehave. "

I certainly have!

"Option C?"

Bloggers..? :)

"If they behaved, they wouldn't have 'special needs'. If they don't have 'special needs', there'd be no extra money for teaching them. Then there'd be sackings among teachers."

It's become something of an industry now, I'd guess.

"OK, so why don't we leave all the disruptive kids in mainstream schools and send the rest to special schools where all the money is spent. That way we end up with at least some children getting an education."

I'm really starting to believe that children getting a proper education isn't really a goal of anyone in politics...