A damning critique of our divided country?

A story that is bound to run and run today is the major review into health inequalities that has found that the poorest can expect 17 fewer years of healthy life, and that health inequalities cost £33bn a year in lost productivity.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot led the Government-commissioned review finding that the equivalent of up to 2.5 million years of life are being lost through people dying prematurely in England each year.

However it is once again the connection between health and being unemployed or poorly educated that is the most worrying.

Life expectancy in Britain is now 77.4 years for men and 81.7 years for women but coming from a deprived background can reduce that by seven years

The report recommends a series of measures including that income tax system should be revised, with possible cuts to encourage more people on low incomes to work.

It also said that action is needed in six key areas, including giving every child the best start in life, creating fair employment and encouraging people into work, and working to prevent people falling ill in the first place.

Lib Dems tackling education

Nick Clegg is doing the rounds this morning as the Lib Dems release new figures highlighting a previously unidentified performance gap between poor children based on which part of the country they live in.

The gap between the GCSE results of poor children in different parts of the country has dramatically widened over recent years. This gap is now bigger than the national performance gap between rich and poor children, and between poor children and the rest.

Speaking on the Today Programme the Lib Dem leader made clear that he would guarantee extra funding “come what may” to reduce class sizes which would be paid for by £1bn in savings from the quangos and £1.5bn from phasing out tax credits for above average income families.

Education and mobility

Gloves off and week three of the unofficial election campaign.

In the blue corner the Tories who today launched their what their leader described as "brazenly elitist" recruitment drive for teachers.

Claiming that the profession should take on only top graduates he told an assembled audience that

We want to give our children the best – it’s time we made our teaching the best. That’s why we’re committed to a comprehensive programme of reform to elevate the status of teaching in our country.

Ed Balls described the announcement as an "airbrushed re-announcement of existing policies"

According to the education secretary

“David Cameron’s warm words are worth little when he plans immediate cuts to school funding this year. This would mean fewer teachers, fewer teaching assistants and bigger class sizes.

Official figures show that almost one in 10 trainee teachers studying for the postgraduate certificate in education has a third-class degree or lower qualification.

However as Chris Dillow points out

Research in Sweden has found that teachers with high measured cognitive skills are actually bad for lower-ability pupils. And researchers (pdf) in North Carolina have found that the effect of teachers’ qualifications upon pupil’s achievements are often statistically insignificant, or even negative, once they control for the fact that better-qualified teachers tend to teach better pupils anyway*.

The Conservatives' leader has also pledged that maths and science graduates from the 25 best universities who go into teaching will have their loans paid off.

Meanwhile the Labour party unveiled plans for increase social mobility by encouraging top professions and universities to attract people from deprived backgrounds.

The move is intended to show that the party is the one to help nurture social improvement.

Cross out,rub out,oops it's still correct

A must read piece in this week's edition of the Spectator by Liz Brocklehurst.

Liz,a former marker of the SAT's paper recounts some tales from the past which will only add weight to the pressure on Ed Balls

Liz was

a Key Stage 2 Science marker, sworn to Masonic-like secrecy about this mysterious testing process. In my innocence I had expected it to be a straightforward procedure, but I hadn’t allowed for the serial incompetence, the human error, the vagaries of postal deliveries, and most important: the political pressure.

And she describes some of the practices,including

if the child wrote the correct answer, but then, on second thoughts, decided it was wrong and crossed it out, the crossing-out still gained the mark.

and it gets better

Correct spelling was completely irrelevant — to the point of absurdity. I remember one question required the one-word answer ‘air’. But markers were instructed that even words such as ‘her’ must be accepted as worthy of the mark. ‘Well,’ argued one senior examiner, ‘the child might speak with a Liverpudlian accent.’

The worrying thing is that these practices have been going on for 10 years,this isn't something that has just occurred under EAT.

A defiant Balls

Steve Richards has a interview with the man of the moment Ed Balls in this morning's Indy.

Under pressure over the Sat tests but standing firm on his reaction to it in the face of a Tory and media onslaught,he claims to have been kept in the dark over the problems at

Only at the beginning of July did we hear that the marking was not on track and there were substantial computer problems."

and adds

"I had a meeting with Ken Boston, the chief executive of the QCA, on 2 June. I asked him questions about marking, quality assurance and delivery and he reassured me that there had been some issues but that he had sorted them out".

He also sees education as one of the dividing lines between the two parties at the next election.

Perhaps though the revelation when asked the ultimate question about his leader

"None of us went into the Labour conference last year thinking an early election was the right thing, but once the speculation began and once the planning had begun it was hard to reverse it."

. but

the next six months will be difficult for Brown,I don't think anyone believes a change of leader would do any good at all... Gordon has the experience, policy and vision."

Parliamentary committee throws plans for further education into disarray

Now the government's plans for extending the school leaving age may have been thrown into disarray

A parliamentary committee has ruled that

using criminal law to force teenagers to stay on in schools was "potentially disproportionate".

The bill that is currently going through Parliament provides for young people who have less than two A levels being forced to participate in some sort of training or education with enforcement orders for those that don't

"The duty to participate in education or training raises issues under article eight [of the European convention on human rights] (the right to respect for private life, which can include aspects of an individual's working life and employment
"Such rights may only be interfered with when it is necessary and proportionate to do so, in pursuit of a legitimate aim.
"Whilst we do not deny the potential benefits to some young people and the economy of their continuing in education and training, in our view, relying on criminal coercion for its enforcement is potentially disproportionate."

Is Education getting easier?

Could not help but laugh at this via Archbishop Cramer who obviously is rather cynical about education standards

1. Teaching Maths In 1970:

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for £100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?

2. Teaching Maths In 1980:

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for £100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or £80. What is his profit?

3. Teaching Maths In 1990:

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for £100. His cost of production is £80. Did he make a profit?

4. Teaching Maths In 2000:

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for £100. His cost of production is £80 and his profit is £20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

5. Teaching Maths In 2008:

A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of £20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong answers. )

6. Teaching Maths 2018:

أ المسجل تبيع حموله شاحنة من الخشب من اجل 100 دولار. صاحب تكلفة الانتاج من الثمن. ما هو الربح ل