Scotland’s rapidly growing support for Reform UK is the result of a profound crisis of trust in mainstream politics — one that progressives share, and must harness, writes DEREK THOMSON
Latest editorial
The Walmartisation of education
PHIL BEADLE traces the impact of marketisation on education, arguing that standardisation and efficiency-driven reforms have crushed creativity and critical thinking in the classroom
Under Thatcher, the Education Reform Act of 1988 outlined ways to introduce marketisation into the education system by treating the parents as consumers, increasing the level of choice they might have and by trying to inculcate competition into the system.
COLL McCAIL rejects the Scottish Establishment’s attempt at an ‘elite lockout’ of Reform UK and says the unions should be wary of co-option by their class enemies in Holyrood just to keep one set of austerity-mongers in power instead of Reform UK
That Scotland was an active participant and beneficiary of colonialism and slavery is not a question of blame games and guilt peddling, but a crucial fact assessing the class nature of the questions of devolution and independence, writes VINCE MILLS
The devastating impact of austerity has left Scotland’s education system on its knees, argues ANDREA BRADLEY, urging politicians to show courage by increasing wealth taxation to fund our schools properly
On the 80th anniversary of liberation from Nazi-fascism, left forces in Italy mobilise against genocide, armament, and the Meloni government, reports ANA VRACAR
After a ruinous run at Tolkien, the streaming platforms are moving on to Narnia — a naff mix of religious allegory, colonial attitudes, and thinly veiled prejudices that is beyond rescuing, writes STEPHEN ARNELL
“THE issue is, Phil,” says a friend of mine, “that there’s just no time to do anything well. The compulsory lesson format is so rigid that we rapidly flick through a few facts, read a bit of a text to them, make them do some written activity and then it’s on with the next one.
“Everyone is so heavily timetabled there’s no time at all to do any marking. There’s no depth to the learning, no quality. Kids in British state schools have to be the worst-educated in the world.”
“The market’s not interested in quality,” I say, “it’s interested in efficiencies.”
Under Thatcher, the Education Reform Act of 1988 outlined ways to introduce marketisation into the education system by treating the parents as consumers, increasing the level of choice they might have and by trying to inculcate competition into the system in order to improve its (and here’s that word again) quality.
More from this author
PHIL BEADLE speaks to former prisoners who found a new start in life thanks to an innovative programme in the prison gym
Award-winning teacher PHIL BEADLE argues that the way the most authoritarian moves in education, like the bizarre practice of ‘silent corridors,’ are mainly inflicted on working-class pupils has dark overtones of fascistic logic
Similar stories
We face austerity, privatisation, and toxic influence. But we are growing, and cannot be beaten
LOGAN WILLIAMS believes there are lessons to be learned from Vietnam’s education system whose excellence is recognised internationally
