Times Online (Free subscription) | 23 hours ago
Conservative plans to grant schools freedom from central control risk bringing the creationist doctrines of a “Religious Right” into the classroom, the Government warned last night.
politicalbetting.com (Free subscription) | yesterday
Wikipedia Which 2005 “notional” result should we believe? After JackW’s earlier thread I thought I’d have a further look at Morley & Outwood - the seat with new boundaries that the Schools Secretary, the public-school educated Mr. Balls, will try to defend at the coming election. And to my surprise I came up with two rather different [...]
Labourlist (Free subscription) | yesterday
By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982 Great stuff from Ed Balls this week, as he talked proudly of Labour's education policies and asked himself and the House whether they could answer GCSE questions. They couldn't, of course. Balls said: "Hard questions, Mr Speaker, in tough exams which our young people are doing very well in. But I have to say there's one question I do know the answer to: why are...
Liberal Conspiracy (Free subscription) | yesterday
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Labour Matters (Free subscription) | 19/11/2009
Conservative education spokesperson Michael Gove, who repeatedly claimed the reason GCSE exam results have consistently improved with Labour was because GCSE exam questions were getting easier, was left dumbstruck after Ed Balls turned the tables on him. As you’ll see in this recording of the Commons, Ed Balls asks Michael Gove to answer just three [...]
The Independent (Free subscription) | yesterday
Can't they put Ed Balls into law? Make him the subject of a Guarantee? Can't he be a right that every parent has? If for the first time Balls was put on a statutory basis millions of people would be certain of access to him.
Unenlightened Commentary. (Free subscription) | 1 hour ago
A Spanish region's new approach to sex education has provoked anger by suggesting children be taught "self-exploration and self-pleasure". Teaching teenagers to whack off is a bit like teaching fish to swim, although I'm sure once Ed Balls realises the potential to increase pass rates we will have a GCSE in the subject in this country too. I did like this comment: "Extremadura should...
Liberal Democrat Voice (Free subscription) | 14 hours ago
Welcome to the latest LDVideo instalment, featuring three of the most memorable video clips doing the rounds on the blogosphere. First up is Ed Balls – the guy might have a debating style reminiscent of a school bully demanding tuck money, but here he completely out-smarts tongue-tied Tory education spokesman Michael Gove: (Hat-tip: Sam Coates). The second [...]
Cllr Ian Lewis (Free subscription) | 6 hours ago
Over on the Seacombe Labour Blog, there is a YouTube video of Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary. He’s taking a swipe at the Tories, as he does, saying standards in school have not fallen under Labour. In an amusing irony, the website has a little graphic to the right of this article. Can you spot [...]
The Telegraph (Free subscription) | 7 hours ago
As Ed Balls proposes to abolish the remains of oldschool history the EU proposes to make the teaching of its own history compulsory says Christopher Booker.
GayandRight (Free subscription) | 6 hours ago
Who needs history anyways'?? The latest initiative by our "Children's Secretary", Ed Balls, is to abolish what remains of fact-based teaching of history and geography in our schools. He plans to "roll them together into themed lessons on social issues such as global warming" (funny how that seems to seep into everything nowadays). The ruthless drive of educational progressives to...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | yesterday
If the past is another country, Ed Balls has just confiscated the passports of our schoolchildren Ed Balls has announced that primary school history is to be subsumed into an "area of learning" called "historical, geographical and social understanding". Personally I did prefer the words "history" and "geography", partly because they're shorter. Presumably Balls,...
Dizzy Thinks (Free subscription) | yesterday
Ed Balls MP, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, is a man very proud of children's achievements in schools. He also, as the man who would be Chancellor likes to think of himself as a bit of an economics/maths whizz kid. This makes the following from Parliament from Balls quite funny, because, whilst discussing GCSE questions he said the following, The third question comes from...
Bob Piper (Free subscription) | yesterday
Ed Balls asks Mickey Gove some Mickey Mouse questions... Watching Mickey Gove squirm is a treat. Hat Tip Political Scrapbook
Conor's Commentary (Free subscription) | yesterday
Until yesterday, Ed Balls had commendably resisted attempts by the teaching unions to scrap accountability, by refusing to abolish testing and league tables. Yesterday, he announced pefectly reasonably that teacher assessment results would be published in league tables alongside test scores. What was unreasonable was his suggestion that Key Stage 2 tests could go, in a shameful attempt to curry favour...
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