Downing Street Says » City Acadamies

Asked if, as Estelle Morris had said, the City Academies programme was going too fast, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that the Prime Minister would address the issue head on his speech this afternoon. The Prime Minister had made no secret of his view that if we were going to meet the challenges of the modern economy, challenges we had seen in detail during the Prime Minister’s recent visit to China and India, we had to upgrade our teaching skills and equip all our students better. Specialist schools fitted very firmly into that picture. We were responding to the needs of the modern economy in the modern world. Put to him that ultimately there was a risk that it would only be children of wealthy parents who would be able to choose a city academy, the PMOS said that was why it was very important that we expanded the number of city academies, and that was what we were doing. There would be 10 new academies opening this month, by next September there would be forty more. The Prime Minister himself had set out an even more ambitious timetable than that.

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Silly me – I thought that it was the qualities of teachers, enforcement of discipline and instilling an enthusiasm for learning that made schools a success.

I would really like to know how putting people in a different building better equips students for modern life.

If this new ‘theory of modern social engineering’ actually works – then can we please pull down the Palace of Westminster and build a crappy tacky glass and steel Houses of Parliament?

Imagine the sensible well reasoned policies that would enhance our lives once the politicians were in the new building.
Comment by Roger Huffadine — 13 Sep 2005 on 9:04 am | Link
Hmm – methinks another case of spin. Way back in the mists of time we used to have places like this – Grammar Schools. So now we call them something else make it for cities only (all the country kids are idiots and besides their parents need to be taught a lesson – VOTE LABOUR, or else!) – which is really fair and equitable.
However, without discipline (Tone, babes, just for you – that iS also FAIR and EQUITABLE discipline), beginning in the home and continuing through the school and into the courts Tone and his playmates are, once again, WASTING OUR MONEY.
And I see Tone’s very own plan wants to waste even more of it?
Comment by roger — 13 Sep 2005 on 1:21 pm | Link
I can’t see how the number of academies proposed can prevent the problem posed by the second questioner — although given the lack of progress recorded by Ofsted so far, and the distinctly lacklustre PriceWaterhouseCoopers evaluation, I don’t think wealthy parents will be that eager to take academies over.

It’s only a small thing, but wouldn’t it be reassuring if they’d noticed by now that they’d spelled the word wrong in their heading? Or is it a Freudian admission that the programme is worth dam all?
Comment by La Reyne le veult — 7 Oct 2005 on 11:42 pm | Link

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» Monday, September 12, 2005

City Acadamies

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