Transition to t-levels®
2021 August 3 Tuesday 13:07
Yes, a qualification name has been registered by a uk government department as a trademark. Have been reading the policy statement document for 'p-16'™ (pending by citc ;) ) education. Interesting to read; nice to see acknowledgement that ultimately, qualifications must be robust and respected by non-teachers, otherwise the in-exorable rise towards 100 % pass rates would render the system incredible. What "caught the eye" are plans to end public funds for btecs, whilst the science pathway (e.g. qualification specification) has a signficant employer involvement requirement. This could be a challenge in London's long-since-gone industrial science employers landscape. It will be fascinating to see how industry responds to the disconnection of cheap labour from Europe and beyond (Brexit, "hostile environment" for colonial descendants, etc.) and being offered gce a(s) rejects (the harsh reality of the btec student perception) for over 300 hours throughout the course duration.
To "sweeten the pill", employers have been bribed incentivised to offer these industrial placements to students. Again, will be fascinating to watch how uk plc responds to sen(d), young offenders, "ethnics", etc.. As always, there will be a battle to "cherry-pick" the best (both employers and students!), some employers will offer industry placement income to students whilst others may decide to use as free labour (there is no legal requirement to pay) ...
Upwards fail
2021 August 10 Tuesday 14:34
It's that time of the year, publication of students' gc(s)e (a)(s) results. A picture says a thousand words...:
To avoid the tautology, a previous web log post on this subject: what is more to add???
Meanwhile, the so-called "thinking skills assessment has quietly been adopted by universities (in addition to bio medical admissions test existence) as an additional filtration tool (pun intended; chemistry per se surely tests such cognitive skills). Curious how these "admissions process assessment services" have appeared whilst aforementioned grade inflation has accelerated...
In other words, the best way to assess students' cognitive skills, are suitably robust summative subject tests: those in chemistry...
Inflation, inflation, everywhere
2021 August 21 Saturday 14:29
uk and London especially is "world class", "world beating" as a dirty money launderette:
... and similarly to school exam grade inflation, much debate (with little action of course) occurs about what to do.
It was an amusement to read yet another "think-tank" report (...Schools and exams in 2022 and beyond), this time about impact of the sars-cov-2 pseudo-pandemic upon comparison of school grades between cohorts. Just as too many people are literally (in)vested in high house prices (thus any mention of house price reduction cannot be tolerated), an era of A-grade proliferation is not going to disappear any time soon.
Webmention: btec inertia in sight of funds removal
Reply to: "radicaled"
The coercion of t-levels may be laudable, but in consideration of the predecessors such as the 14-19 diploma (thesis, pdf), the omens are not good. It takes years to build capacity to teach students of the sciences; too many potential employers have closed!
Social media dissemination 
A read of a post about Mastodon (also posted by 'Sierra'), prompted a brief review and subsequent application of the old adage: "follow the money". Sex dolls, essay writers, casinos as sponsors? Mmm, no thanks... Consequently will now use 'Hubzilla' instead to disseminate the web log posts.
New Year, New Lies
2021 August 31 Tuesday 21:06
gce a students are about to embark/continue with the education-Ponzi scheme that is the mantra of university enrolment (in uk via the grand master, ucas, as the next academic year is about to begin. As a subvertive teacher, have to "toe the corporate line" and extol the benefits of going to "uni", whilst paying only "lip-service" to alternatives such as &emdash; wait for it &emdash; applying to get a job. If subsequent generations can be conditioned to accept the concept of perpetual debt (yes, the 100 year inter-generational mortgage; debt handed down the generations!), teachers have succeeded in the role to facilitate compliance over critical thought. It's depressing, but we all have rent to pay, yes?
Is your software service "children's code compliant?"
Curious to encounter an introduction to the uk Children's Code for provision of various internet services.
Simple question: is your open source compliant? Do you care?