English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

[Tubby Isaacs]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7773081.stm

This is a kind of vindication of government policy, with a narrow emphasis on some important core areas. However, there's the worrying stat that the kids don't feel very positive about what they've achieved.

Note the particularly cuntish comment from Michael Gove. I'm surprised he doesn't say
Bongobongoland for Kazakstan because that's what he means. They actually beat England in one of the four criteria anyhow.

[E10 Rifle]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

Christ, that's a pathetically small-minded comment from Gove. But a sadly typical of the sixth form common room debating society sneering that is the essential MO of Cameron's New Model Tories

[Tubby Isaacs]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

Yeah. New Labour are such that even things they claim as successes usually have a downside that a bright Tory party could latch on to- and Gove is supposed to be their brightest. As I say, the joylessness is the downside. Still, I suspect doing well in a narrow set of tests is the Tory dream policy. In which case, they might say "this is good, but there are other areas less good..."

[Anton Gramscescu]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

The thing about TIMSS is that it's not especially rigorous about which children sit the test. It's long been thought that certain Asian countries try to game the test by telling certain dimmer students not to show up to school on the day of the international test.

What's interesting is to compare the TIMSS 14 year-old math test result with the 15-year oild math result in the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment in 2006. In the latter, the Scandinavians appear to do much, much better. The UK did not crack the top 20 in Math and came 14th in science. Part of the difference came from the fact that more countries participated in PISA, but part may also just be that the two are tetsing slightly different thing.

Worth noting too, perhaps, that PISA reports on the UK and TIMSS reports on England. It could be that the inclusion of Wales, Scotland and NI drags the scores down.

[Ant van Oviedo]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

Where was Spain in all this? I suspect they forgot to send in their application, or were late doing so. Probably too busy smoking. Lucky for them, as I shudder to think where they would end up in the rankings.

[Anton Gramscescu]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

I don't think they participate in TIMSS, but tey do participate in PISA, and they (like all mediterranean countries) do quite poorly.

Check this out for Spanish reaction to the last set of PISA results

[Tubby Isaacs]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

Spain is a funny one. I was impressed with the Aragon paper, for the level of its political discussion. Yet it doesn't always seem like its enlightenment is matched by, um, application on the ground.

[E10 Rifle]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

It's long been thought that certain Asian countries try to game the test by telling certain dimmer students not to show up to school on the day of the international test

A tactic not exactly unknown over here either.

[ooh aah]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

Michael Gove, said it showed England's pupils were in the "global second division" behind Asian countries.

An improvement on where they were 10 years ago then. That's a bit like an unsuccesful manager criticising his successor for getting the team promoted only once.

[Tubby Isaacs]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

I read somewhere that Chinese children have some linguistic advantage with arithmetic. Is that true?

How you doing, Ooh Aah?

[Andy C]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

The Hungarians thread was pretty dismissive about connections between native language and mathematical ability.

[Wyatt Earp]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

Yeah, I don't buy it.

I would guess that Kazakhstan maths education would have inherited old Soviet practices, which would make it extremely rigorous and exacting. If so, it seems Gove's showing his insularity and ignorance here as well as his meanness of spirit.

I knew he was a wrong-un back when he was on that thing with David Baddiel.

[San Bernardhinault]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

This is great, but frankly astonishing, news.

[loose cannon]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

Os it looks like England has been overtaken in the race to the bottom. Labour can't even do that right.

[Tubby Isaacs]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

Here's the Daily Mail's take on it:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1093174/British-pupils-lead-western-world-maths--Borats-glorious-nation-Kazakhstan-puts-shame.html

You can guess what it says from the URL.

[Tubby Isaacs]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

And guess what university they go to for an academic to comment?

[Wyatt Earp]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

Strong case for quotes around the u-word there.

[Andy C]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

But Shadow Children's Secretary Michael Gove said: 'It hardly gives confidence that we will compete in hard subjects that count when countries with all Kazakhstan's disadvantages are outstripping ours'.

He can't even count.

[ooh aah]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

I'm fine thanks Tubby. My main difficulty at the moment is the language barrier. Tones are very important in Chinese, and I'm really struggling with them. Two words which are on the face of it the same, can have a completely different meaning if a different tone is used. Hence I can ask for a sprite, and the waitress will think I've asked for a watery cunt.

[EIM]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

I hate it when that happens.

[WOM]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

I hate it when it happens the other way round.

[WOM]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

Aaaaaaaaahhhhhh....fucking first post on the fucking second page.

That...that I really hate.

[EIM]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

Its better than getting the last post on the first page. OR the first post on the tenth page.

Anyway, in most instances, I'd rather have a Sprite.

[WOM]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

Nothing wrong with the last post on the first page. If people get as far as your post, you know they're 'into' the thread. But next page? Meh...maybe they'll keep plugging on...maybe they'll go do some work, or talk with family, or, if you're 1890, go for a 12 mile hike in freezing weather, and then relax by the fireplace in some cozy pub in a little town. But no fucking way are they still chuckling from whatever tickled them at the bottom of Page 1 when they finally feel arsed to go to Page 2.

Thanks for trying to make me feel better.

[EIM]

English kids not all pregnant drug users shock

No one reads the last post on the first page. Many a time has a *applause* deserving quip of mine been lost to the world due to its position at the bottom of the page.