It struck me today that for many of us the pandemic acts like an intensifier. Whatever your life was like pre pandemic - it has become even more like that. (1/n)
If in normal life, you live with your family including small kids, your life is even more family dominated. (2/n)
If you live alone and are a little solitary, you become even more solitary (3/n)
If your life is defined by juggling work and family life, the pandemic makes it even more of a juggle. (4/n)
If finances are really tight and everything feels tough, the pandemic makes it more so. (5/n)
If you’re quite well off with quite a lot of disposable income, you have even more (6/n)
The result? Are pandemic lives are radically different but have one thing in common: Many of us are overdosing on our normal lives. (7/7)
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Batley Grammar School is locked down in the middle of a lockdown. Protestors gather around the gates. Asian British men standing in small groups. They stare at each other. They check their phones. They watch the nation’s media watching them. (1/)
The school is quiet, empty. Pupils stay at home. It is March 7th for them all over again. Laptops out, cameras off, teachers teaching into the void. Apart from one. (2/)
The press says he is in police protection. The headmaster says he is sorry. The Cabinet Minister says he shouldn’t be. (3/)
Governments of all colours have talked the talk of sorting out technical education. Here's how to walk the walk.
1. Fund technical education properly: Despite the noise, we fund schools at the same level as other rich countries. But not our colleges. We need enough £ for every students to get 30 hours of learning a week not 15 and every teacher to be paid as much as a school teacher.
2. Give students enough time: Two years is not long enough for many of our students to become skilled at a craft. Countries with great systems allow three. The result? More young people get skilled jobs, better wages and live in a richer, more equal society. This requires ...
Five ways the U.K. is failing 50% of our children. (A short thread about technical education and FE colleges.)
Only 50% of our children do A levels. Most of the rest do technical courses. The problem is they are not very good. Why? 5 reasons.
1. Poor courses
The point of a technical course is to end up competent at a skilled job. Too many courses miss the mark. Rather than an end assessment set by employers, students do a bit of coursework, some work experience & are told that's a technical course. It's not.
Having left the Department for Education time to share some thoughts. Today: “Why is the UK crap at technical education?” (a thread)
Everyone focuses far too much on schools and not enough on colleges. (And by everyone, I mean everyone - especially the public, i.e., you dear reader.)
Which is a problem as the top priority by far should be to fix the UK’s constant underperformance at technical education.