We don't need no
education...
AS the timeless
Pink Floyd song goes: "Teachers! Leave those kids alone!" It now
turns out some teachers in Northern Ireland have been doing exactly that.
The Assembly Public
Accounts Committee has looked at literacy and numeracy - which translates for
those with poor literacy and numeracy as reading, writing and doing sums.
Part of the blame,
says the committee, can be laid at the door of not sacking poorly performing teachers.
At this point please feel free to shout: "I blame the parents...".
However, the committee may have a point, with one in six children stepping
forward into the brave new world of post-primary school (the Big School) unable
to read, write, and count to more than 10 without taking their socks off.
The vast majority
of our teachers in Northern Ireland are fantastic and inspirational; which
means that the problem may lie a little deeper than a few bad apples at the
blackboard.
What the committee
did not seem to address is the social demographic, cultural and psycho-social
aspects of schools failing children. Is it only the rich but thick experiencing
these problems?
Or is it the case
that those poorer families; families with generational unemployment and
families with parents who have poor literacy and numeracy have children
emerging from school as talented in every way except for how to read, write and
count?
Minister for
edschumakation, John O'Dowd, has already, with the support of executive colleagues
started the process of employing newly graduated teachers to tackle the
problems of literacy and numeracy; and minister for employment and learning, Dr
Stephen Farry, is targeting adults who have problems reading, writing and doing
maths.
As these long
overdue initiatives are implemented, politicians of all shades, colours and
opinions need to take a long hard look at themselves. And ask themselves what
they have been doing to prevent the situation becoming so bad that 1 in 6 of
our children are being failed.
We are not holding
our breath for such introspection, but then again politicians need to be
acutely aware that shouting about doing more is not enough; rather they should
see what they can and must to do to be part of the solution.
Counting the cost
CHANCELLOR of the
Exchequer, George Osborne - or as President Obama prefers to call him 'Jeffrey
Osborne’ - has outlined his spending plans for the next few years and woe is
us, but the Chancellor is bringing down the axe right across government.
Norn Iron's share
of largesse it receives from Whitehall is plummeting by two per cent; which on
the face of it doesn't sound like much, but when counting your monies in
billions it is a tidy sum to lose.
While we are
getting a 'loan', which could amount to £100m for capital and infrastructure
projects, there will be less money to go around. Add that to a potential de
facto cut in civil and public sector pay rises and the introduction of changes
to the welfare system, there can be only one recourse to action.
And that is for
Invest NI and enterprise minister Arlene Foster to use their magic to
pluck several thousand highly paid
private sector jobs out of thin air. Or as the Executive prefers to call it -
the G8 effect.
With our big pitch
- apart from all those literate and numerate computer types - being tourism we
also learned this week that last year's 'Our Time, Our Place' marketing blitz
cost £11m but yet attracted fewer visitors. However, those visitors who did
come spent more than those of previous years.
Which all comes
down to having a better class of riot. Stick with us here, it will make sense
eventually.
Norn Iron has many
tourist attractions. It also accustomed to regular bouts of civil disorder
(think marching season, flag protests etc).
The tourist,
attracted by the prospect of learning more about the Titanic and seeing the
geological wonder of the Giant's Causeway, arrives in Norn Iron. They then hear
of rioting. Fearing that they may lose their camera and their bearings they
decide to dash round the shops, grab some gift shop rubbish and run back to the
cruise liner or airport. In this mad headlong rush to avoid civil disorder they
will not look at the price but simply will spend, spend, spend to prove to Joe
Schmoe from Illinois or Zhang Wei from Shanghai that they survived the riot.
Meanwhile, if all
the shops agree to an under the counter cash economy that allows them to accept
the higher prices while giving a backhand to the Assembly there will be more
for everyone.
But it seems that
Mr Osborne's financial gestapo will easily identify any scams we attempt, and
will further cut our budget.
However, the irony
of course is that rioting and the subsequent cost of policing and clear up
actually contributes to the UK's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
If you ever thought
you understood economics - perhaps you have an 'A' level or a degree in it -
then Norn Iron will disabuse you of the notion that you know anything about
anything. What is worrying in this convoluted article and convoluted conclusion
is that our finance minister, Sammy Wilson, used to be the deputy chief
examiner for 'A' level economics in Norn Iron...
All getting a wee
bit tetchy this week
LOOKING back on the
past week in politics it could be possible to look cogently at the work
undertaken by MLAs. But looking at the headlines tells a different story.
We have had an
angry exchange between the DUP's Jimmy Spratt and UUP leader Mike Nesbitt in
committee, we have had a former junior minister sprawled across the bonnet of a
police land rover and an apparent coup d'état in the chamber (environment
minister Alex Attwood saw the first minister and deputy first minister make
changes to his Planning Bill that made him decidedly unhappy).
We do not wish to
comment on any of these incidents as to the right or wrong of them.
However, we do
often ponder, when the boss isn't cracking the whip, whether MLAs ever consider
how their actions and utterances play out in the public's minds? Or are they
just trying to vote catch?
Either way we hope
that the civic conversation Green Party MLA Steven Agnew is hosting to allow
public comment at least produces a civil conversation!
In the meantime, on
behalf of our clients, we will continue to scan and devour the less covered and
less acknowledged work of the Assembly, whether in the chamber or committee.