A breathtaking mix of incompetence and inertia

Trumpeter Lanfried

The phrase 'the school experience had been good' is not just misleading. It is mendacious.

John

My daughter's English A-level papers were marked incompetently a few years ago. On appeal, her overall grade was corrected from C to A (!!!). Fortunately, she was taking a gap year (mostly to do voluntary work and an extra AS subject), so it didn't affect her place at her preferred university; but the incompetence is mind-boggling.

Chuck Unsworth

It's the 'arms length' approach by Balls which is manifest here. So 'arms length' as to be a complete disconnect between the Minister and the Board of the QCA. Now, whose responsibility is that? Is the Minister responsible for the way his appointees and contractors operate?

Al Faturd

Why do you persist in granting to the SATs idiocy, a degree of relevance?

The whole idea is craven submission to the understanding that quantifiability is to rule over all other considerations.

Ben Gardiner

And whilst this shambles is going on, the government announces it wants to extend testing to doctors...

Pete, Scotland

I spent a couple of years teaching, part time, in further education.

The scale of the waste, the incompetence, the lack of accountability and the absolute suppression of anybody that does not toe the Government line can only be believed by somebody that has been there.

It is my opinion that the majority of further/adult education tutors are not fit for purpose.

However, if they tick all the politically correct boxes then they are excellent as far as this Government is concerned.

I have moved back into the cold, hard world of private contracting. Always trying to get business, but at least the rules are clear.

I have mulled over how to express how I feel about our education system, I thought that trying to find the words and phrases to accurately reflect my views would be difficult.

I was wrong, our education system is c**p, the Government in charge of our education system is c**p, the people oppointed by our Government to be in charge of our education system are c**p, the majority of teachers, in my experience are c**p, the whole educational system is so politically correct and positively biased against some group or other it is c**p.

Is it any wonder that our kids are screwed up and confused?

Terry Walpole

Don't hold your breath in regard to your final point Jim. I cannot think of a single occassion where private contractors of public services ever get penalized.

Does anyone in Government know about liability clauses and penalties for non-delivery?

Helen Coulthard

I am a primary Head Teacher. I have been trying to estimate how much more time the ETS system took me.
*- 1hr; reading all the new emails and instructions prior to SATs
* - 2 hrs; trying to decipher the new packing arrangements with my bursar and eventually realising that 'script' actually meant ' set of all papers completed by a child for any one subject'. In previous years, script meant script.
* - 2 hrs; Bursar and self collating all papers so we could send them. (transfer of admin task from company to school)
* - 2hrs; trying to sort out ETS telling me I had not returned all my scripts - when even their tracking system showed me that I had!
* - 6hrs; colleague and self transfering all numerical scores onto a mark sheet and converting them to levels (all previously done for us) Did they seriously think any school would sit on marked papers and not check their results!
* - 3hrs; sample marking of scripts to check for accuracy given the bad press. (Have not felt the need to do this previously.) Ours were actually well marked.
This is quite apart from the normal scrutiny of borderline scripts and those where we disagreed with the outcome!
So, that is 16 extra hours imposed on just one school by ETS. Enough has already been said about the impact of the late return of papers.
Why not complain? Could never get through on helpline and anyway - who would listen?

Hereford

This is yet another indicator of the true malaise in politics in this country. Incompetent, unqualified and lazy ministers supported by an intrinsically lazy, spin obsessed and incompetent Civil Service.

Jonny Mac

"Does anyone in Government know about liability clauses and penalties for non-delivery?"

I sympathise. I spent ten years as a lawyer in Government. Despite what you may think, the lawyers are good. But for some reason, they tend to be excluded when it comes to negotiating contracts with private suppliers: you only find out it's happened after the event. The result is that HMG is always, always, f***ed over.

Hugh

James
I notice from the QCA minutes that the board approves each contract over £ 1 million, was there any discussion of the award of the Contract to the American firm which is being administered so badly.

Faceless Bureaucrat

The tragedy is that for all the complaints about the Civil Service bureaucracy in years gone by, at least for the most part such bureaucracy was in pursuit of delivering what was expected – in many cases, what was seen as ‘petty bureaucracy’ at the time was actually the checks & balances in operation. Sadly, with the now almost total politicisation of the Civil Service, this is no longer the case – those checks & balances are gone. What we are left with are overpaid incompetent Officials overseen by Ministers who see there responsibility to their Department as something which should be kept at ‘arm’s length’ – shame on them all and shame on us too, for allowing this dreadful state of affairs to manifest itself…

Liz Brown

Who will rid us of this pestilent "sowhatballsup"
if he kept the Sats at arm's length, then what on earth is he being paid for?

Nicholas

Pete from Scotland: good post. I have long suspected that a majority of teachers and civil servants get and retain their jobs through their left-wing political affiliations, now creeping into the police too. I'm sure the whole system has been subverted and screwed up deliberately by the commie b*s*a*ds.