BBC News - Gove calls for state schools to be more like private - 0 views
www.bbc.co.uk/...education-26015535
english education england united kingdom education ESTEkiv state school private school independent school
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Education Secretary Michael Gove
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he said he wanted to break down the "Berlin Wall" between state and independent sectors. This could see state pupils taking the private school common entrance exam and state schools staying open longer
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The education secretary, speaking at the London Academy of Excellence, said that for decades "the dominant consensus has been that state education in England was barely satisfactory"
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he wanted schools to be able to stay open longer for nine or 10 hour days. This would allow more time for after-school activities or to provide a place for children to do their homework.
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Mr Gove said that commentators had associated state schools with "poor discipline, low standards, entrenched illiteracy, widespread innumeracy", but he said that this "pessimistic view is no longer tenable"
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he said the state system was improving, with better results, more pupils taking tougher subjects and fewer weak schools
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called for more testing, including taking the common entrance exam taken by 13 year olds in some private schools
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Mr Gove backed plans for individual secondary schools to be able to take the OECD's international Pisa tests
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Sir David also had tough words about teachers' unions, saying their "political naivety has been astonishing". "Their barrage of industrial action and knee-jerk opposition to any change has allowed the education secretary and his supporters to characterise them as cartoon-like bogeymen," he writes.
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Responding to Mr Gove's speech on Monday, Labour's shadow education secretary, Tristram Hunt, said: "Improving school standards starts with a qualified teacher in every classroom. Until Michael Gove commits to this, he is ruling himself out of any serious debate about how we raise standards in our schools. "Whether on discipline, delivering extra-curricular activities or on improving learning outcomes: it all hinges on the quality of the teacher in the classroom. Raising the quality of teaching - that is where the focus needs to be and that is what Labour is concerned with. The Tories have lost sight of this and are undermining school standards as a result.
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Christine Blower, leader of the National Union of Teachers, challenged the idea of state schools using the common entrance exam. "Why would we imagine that that is an appropriate examination? He's not discussed that with anybody, he's not discussed it with any of the exam boards, he's certainly not discussed it with the representatives of teachers," said Ms Blower.
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Mr.Gove says that at the heart of every successful private school is the independence of the Head. It isn't.At the heart of every successful private school is exclusivity; fees; selection and privileged parental backgrounds.Will he give those to state schools? No, of course not. So let's stop this nonsensical argument now.
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Most people work a 8 hour day (although there are many who work more) and we expect children to work for longer? How, many of us adults would want to attend a course that lasted 10 hours a day for 40 weeks of the year? I know my brain would explode! Concentrate on quality not quantity Mr Gove!