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Is the government just straight out trolling schools, children, parents, teachers & academics now?
Like publishing guidance for major changes after 5pm with one school day before the new term, on the back of many late & last minute changes this year: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-and-childcare-settings-return-in-january-2021
Like publishing guidance for major changes after 5pm with one school day before the new term, on the back of many late & last minute changes this year: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-and-childcare-settings-return-in-january-2021
I've tried to be fair - things are fast moving & complex. But this is so consistent from the DfE if it's not trolling it's looks like regular last-minute panicked incompetence. Teachers talk of DfE-eve knowing something will 'drop' & they'll have to scramble to respond.
And this latest from the DfE comes with the report that COVID-19 infection rates in schools mirror rates in the community - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/covid-19-infection-rates-in-schools-mirror-rates-in-the-community
This is important for a number of reasons.
This is important for a number of reasons.
But one is that isn't not clear schools are driving things but reflecting what's going on. As talked about in the summer - it's other interactions that have to stay reduced to keep schools open. Closing them for a week looks incoherent against this data.
I have only respect for the teachers tasked with switching multiple times each day between providing full time live online education to some & in person education to others. And with *no preparation time* other than holidays!
Remember too that digital access remains a huge issue & many of the promised government-funded laptops never arrived. Plus internet access needed for data-heavy livestreamed teaching can't be assumed. For some it's pay the WiFi or feed the children: https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/digitaldivide
That's why being so dismissive of child hunger and Unicef's intervention is so wilfully unseeing: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55354958
It's part of a particular geographic imagination to think 'real poverty' is an issue for other people, somewhere else but couldn't be an issue in the UK.
It's part of a particular geographic imagination to think 'real poverty' is an issue for other people, somewhere else but couldn't be an issue in the UK.
Perhaps more trivially the shocking speech from Liz Truss (who wrote it?) which talks on the importance of education and truth and yet shows no evidence of either in relation to characterising Focault's work and thought.
The take on geography & regional inequality has received less attention on twitter but raises some important issues in a really misapplied way - i.e. why there are differences in wages.
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/fight-for-fairness
(I worry the writer was half remembering their geography degree).
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/fight-for-fairness
(I worry the writer was half remembering their geography degree).
But it also picks up things from her time at the DfE and assumptions about things that drive up standards (i.e. through the competition introduced by free schools) which despite the speech's focus on data and evidence is lacking.
So it's been quite a day. So trolling, incompetence or something else?
Finally, a shout out to all the teachers, heads, parents, academics, children and students having to deal with all this. It's certainly ridiculous but it's not in any way funny how much this stuff hurts.
Finally, a shout out to all the teachers, heads, parents, academics, children and students having to deal with all this. It's certainly ridiculous but it's not in any way funny how much this stuff hurts.
