Standards have been so dumbed-down even the children know it

On 6 October 2010, Deputy Headmistress, Katharine Birbalsingh was quoted thus by The Daily Mail:

"We need to instil competition amongst the kids and help build their motivation by ensuring they’re not given everything and that they are held to account for what they do.

We have a situation where STANDARDS HAVE BEEN SO DUMBED DOWN THAT EVEN THE CHILDREN KNOW IT. When I give them past exam papers to do from 1998, they groan and beg for a 2005 or 6 paper, because THEY KNOW IT’LL BE EASIER.

Exclusion quotas bind our headteachers, league tables have all of us pursuing targets and grades. INSTEAD OF TEACHING PROPERLY... THE ORDINARY CHILD… IS LOST IN A SEA OF BUREAUCRACY…

Ranking children by ability is viewed as poisonous by teachers which means that PUPILS LIVE IN DARKNESS WITHOUT ANY IDEA OF HOW THEY COMPARE TO THOSE AROUND THEM, let alone to those who are educated in the private sector...

BLACK UNDERACHIEVEMENT is due in part to THE CHAOS OF OUR CLASSROOMS, and in part, to THE ACCUSATION OF RACISM.

IF YOU KEEP TELLING TEACHERS THAT THEY’RE RACIST FOR TRYING TO DISCIPLINE BLACK BOYS, AND IF YOU KEEP TELLING HEADS THAT THEY’RE RACIST FOR TRYING TO EXCLUDE BLACK BOYS, IN THE END, THE SCHOOLS STOP REPRIMANDING THESE CHILDREN.

BLACK CHILDREN UNDERACHIEVE BECAUSE OF WHAT THE WELL-MEANING LIBERAL DOES TO HIM.

I don’t think ordinary parents have any idea about what goes on in their schools. But IT IS TOTALLY AND UTTERLY CHAOTIC. TEACHERS SPEND MOST OF THEIR TIME TELLING CHILDREN TO SIT DOWN OR STOP DISRUPTING THE CLASS RATHER THAN TEACHING…

LEAGUE TABLES TELL YOU NOTHING ABOUT HOW GOOD A SCHOOL REALLY IS, JUST HOW GOOD THE SCHOOL IS AT PLAYING THE SYSTEM AND PICKING THE EASIER EXAMS…

I’d like to see bad teachers getting fired and heads given the powers to discipline children…

THE UNIONS ARE KEEPING BAD TEACHERS AND BAD SUPPORT STAFF FROM BEING FIRED.”

Well, the Nationalist has been saying this stuff for ever. And the PC Crowd has been demonising him for just as long. The Marxist may, however, have a little difficulty in sneering at this Jenny-Westphalen-come-lately to the truth table. Seeing as she was once a Marxist and her parents were Caribbean immigrants.

On 18 August 2011, Birbalsingh was quoted thus by The Telegraph:

“Are our children really becoming more intelligent? COMPARE AN A LEVEL PAPER FROM 30 YEARS AGO TO ONE FROM 2011 AND THERE IS NO COMPARISON… THE GRADES THAT WE SEE OUR CHILDREN GETTING ARE NOT AN ACCURATE REPRESENTATION OF OUR COUNTRY’S TRUE ABILITIES. The grades the public see are an inflated version of what we would have seen before retaking modules became the norm.”

Within the same article, Chris Keates, General Secretary of NASUWT, put the opposite case thus:

“The publication of A-level results leads to the depressing regurgitation of the same stale arguments that any increase in the overall pass rate or the number of candidates gaining Grade A, is nothing more than a symptom of an explosion in the number of CANDIDATES TAKING EASY SUBJECTS or the general DUMBING DOWN OF THE QUALIFICATIONS SYSTEM. A-levels, it is claimed, are not what they once were.

The ‘dumbing down’ argument should be dismissed for the nonsense that it is. There is no credible evidence that examinations have become less demanding, other than in the HAZY, SEPIA-TINGED, PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF SOME OF EXAMINATIONS TAKEN IN THE DIM AND DISTANT PAST.

Results have increased significantly over the past decade. Between 1997 and 2010 the A level pass rate rose from 87.7% to 97.55%, 43,000 more students went to university and there was a 30% increase in young people from the most disadvantaged areas attending higher education. All as a result of rising standards of achievement DUE TO THE HARD WORK OF TEACHERS AND YOUNG PEOPLE AND NOTHING ELSE.”

The cited statements of Katharine Birbalsingh and Chris Keates are mutually exclusive. Both cannot be true. One of the cited commentators is a liar. Let's try to figure out which is which.

One has gained a reputation for speaking out in a courageous, politically incorrect, off-message way. The other has gained a reputation for hectoring the multitudes in an on-message, doctrinaire, politically correct way.

One was suspended from her school and forced to resign for blowing the whistle on the state of the British education. The other is the leader of the largest teacher's Union.

One is a reformed Marxist who made a speech at the 2010 Tory Party's conference in support of their education policies. The other appears to be a very present Marxist supporter of the UAF (Unite Against Fascism).

One has said this: (excuse the reiteration)

"Black underachievement is due in part to the chaos of our classrooms, and in part, to the accusation of racism. If you keep telling teachers that they’re racist for trying to discipline black boys, and if you keep telling heads that they’re racist for trying to exclude black boys, in the end, the schools stop reprimanding these children.

Black children underachieve because of what the well-meaning liberal does to him... The unions are keeping bad teachers and bad support staff from being fired.”

The other is on record as having said:

"The teachers' union NASUWT has been campaigning for the last four years... to prevent those who are members of the BNP and other far-right fascist organisations from being employed as teachers... The union also believes that they should not be allowed to serve on school governing bodies. Our proposal... would ensure that children and young people were protected from exposure to their vile views... Such an amendment would bring the contract in line with those of the police and prison service...

The views and beliefs of those who are active in the BNP are completely incompatible with the ethos and values of public service in which harassment, discrimination, intolerance and abuse have no place. Teachers and the whole school workforce play a vital role in helping to tackle racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia and all forms of discrimination. Their role is to contribute to securing an inclusive society, to promote community cohesion... No right-minded person would want such people nursing the sick, caring for the elderly or teaching children."

I wonder if Chris Keates would have a problem with 'such people' as those inhabiting the Rogues' Gallery, working in the 'police and prison service' or her own profession? I mean, they'd be the 'diverse,' 'inclusive' and 'cohesive' types she seems so enamoured of, wouldn't they?

Just in case you haven't figured out yet which of our two protagonists is the most honest, here's something that was said in the 17 August 2011 edition of The Telegraph:

"The number of UK-born people in employment was 25 million over the three months to June, a fall of 50,000 people on a year earlier. Conversely the number of people with jobs who were born outside of Britain was 4.15 million, an increase of 289,000 on last year… Lord McFall of Alcluith, the former MP and chairman of the Treasury select committee, said:

‘This highlights THE LACK OF SKILLS IN THE UK POPULATION... THE EDUCATION AND SKILLS AGENDA NEEDS GREATER FOCUS’…

The number of unemployed 16 to 24-years-olds grew by 15,000 to 949,000 between March and June. This means that over one in five of all youths – or 20.2 per cent – are now unemployed.”

The businessman who prefers to employ foreign labour rather than the native Brit would, rightly or wrongly, tell us that he does so because of ‘the lack of skills in the UK population’. I doubt that he would say that ‘the ‘dumbing down’ argument was ‘nonsense‘. I also doubt that he would argue that the 20.2 per cent figure had arisen because of the ‘rising standards of achievement’.

But then, according to the philosophy of the Chris Keates type, said businessman would probably be suffering from 'hazy, sepia-tinged, personal recollections of... the dim and distant past.' Where, of course, everything was so dreadfully undiverse, uninclusive, incohesive and non-multiculturalised. Where everything was so uninterestingly non-riotous and the importation of the lovely, fluffy individuals found in the Rogues Gallery was still a non-Fascistic twinkle in the eye of the Keatesian apparatchik.