What’s good for the goose?

All Change Please! recently posted ‘Gove to abolish ABC‘ after the announcement that he was about to improve educational standards across the country by substituting numbers for letters. Is there no limit to his genius? Apparently not, as further details have recently been published about the new lucky number system, and the return to ‘iGove’ level non-coursework examinations for all.

Now All Change Please! has pointed out before that there are not many jobs in life that require expertise in sitting isolated in a hall, hand-writing a regurgitated load of fact-filled academic essays, but obviously this message has failed to reach the higher echelons of Whitehall. Therefore it is now proposing an alternative strategy in which we create employment opportunities that actually make use of this incredibly valuable skill-set that all our children are being equipped with.

So, for example, take government ministers. All Change Please! suggests that ministers should be prevented for making public speeches for two years (a truly excellent idea in itself?). At the end of this period, on a specified morning or afternoon, they will open a sealed envelope that will contain the name a Government Department. Then without any further preparation, they will immediately be required to deliver a three hour speech setting out proposed reform and justifying policy. No conferring with speech-writers, government officials or spin doctors will be allowed, or any access to external sources of information, or the use of a computer. A single member of the public will then judge their performance and award them a ‘number’. Those who achieve a 5, 6, 7 or 8 will be allowed to remain in Parliament and prepare for making another higher-level single speech in a further two years’ time. Those scoring a 4 or under will be required to stand down as an MP. What’s good for the goose…?

Talking of which, you really should have a gander at this from, of all places, the Daily Mirror…

Maconie on Michael Gove: Education Secretary not qualified to tell us how kids should be educated: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/stuart-maconie-michael-gove-education-1934791#.

And finally, news from an All Change Please! reader that a local primary school has gone from ‘good’ to ‘special measures’ within three years and must now convert to being an Academy.  When will the general public start to realise that the state education infrastructure is being rapidly dismantled and privatised, and our schools will soon be all run and resourced for purely commercial gain?

Update*  According to this report, it seems that some examination papers are being electronically marked in places such as Australia.  Therefore the above proposal is amended to read: ‘A single member of the public located in Australia will then judge their performance.’

Image credit: Flickr: Bertuz