The state of the UK

[Brian Peacock]

Endiburgh has a plan and has accelerated it during lockdown.

[Scot Dutchy]

Have they told anyone about it? The Corporation is very secretive.

[Scot Dutchy]

Education anyone? Not if you in an English state school.
Pressure grows on ministers over England A-level results 'mess'

39% of teacher predictions may be downgraded and poorer pupils hit hardest

Ministers are under immense pressure over the botched handling of English A-level results after Scotland announced a dramatic U-turn and major research showed that high-achieving pupils from poorer backgrounds are likely to be hardest hit.

The universities minister was writing urgently to vice-chancellors, asking them to be lenient with their offers and keep places open for pupils pursuing appeals amid fears that this year’s results will not truly reflect pupils’ abilities.

Schools in England are braced for turmoil on Thursday when about 250,000 pupils are due to receive their A-level results following the cancellation of exams due to the coronavirus pandemic. Grades will be issued according to an algorithm that relies on a school’s recent exam history and each pupil’s past exam results, as well as grades submitted by teachers.

Again money and privilege plays a vital role. The great British 'democracy'.

[Brian Peacock]

The SNP have backtracked today after doing the same last week.

[Scot Dutchy]

Well now is a golden chance if you are a borderline student.

Swinney statement on exam result changes: key points

Here’s a quick summary of the key points:

All results that were downgraded this year as part of the moderation process will be reversed. Swinney said: “We now accept that concern [over inflation] is outweighed by concern that young people from working class backgrounds may lose faith in the education system and conclude that the system is against them.”
Results that were upgraded will not be reversed, and it would not “in any way be fair to do so”.
Provision will be made for additional university places to cover the resulting increase in numbers attending.
As a result of the changes the new Higher pass rate is up 14.4%, the National 5 pass rate is up 10.7%, and the Advanced Higher pass rate is up 13.7%.
Labour and Conservative opposition speakers were unimpressed by Swinney’s statement, calling on the minister to resign and saying that these issues have been apparent for weeks, and Swinney and Nicola Sturgeon have taken too long to change course.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/ ... evel-exams

[laklak]

WHy bother with exams at all if you've got an algorithm? Just assign the little fuckers a job when they're born.

[Scot Dutchy]

WHy bother with exams at all if you've got an algorithm? Just assign the little fuckers a job when they're born.

Brave New World? (the book not that stupid film version)

[Scot Dutchy]

Another day another contract to rich tory friends. Corruption continues.

UK government urged to justify £108m contact-tracing deal with Serco

Email leaked to shadow health minister prompts questions over whether company was cherry-picked

The government has been urged to demonstrate there was no favouritism at play in awarding Serco a contact-tracing contract worth £108m, as a leaked memo revealed the outsourcing firm was enlisted to help with the Covid-19 response as early as January.

Serco is facing growing calls to be axed from any future involvement in contact-tracing services amid concerns over the performance of private firms contracted to trace people who have mixed with infected individuals.

An email leaked to Justin Madders, the shadow health minister, showed the company was approached by Public Health England in January over preparations to tackle the pandemic, prompting questions over whether it was “cherry picked” by the government and given the inside track.
=============//=========

It was not put out to open tender but selected via an existing framework of suppliers.

It comes after the government announced on Monday that NHS test and trace was cutting 6,000 contact-tracer jobs and allocating roles to regional teams to work with councils, after criticism that the centrally run system was failing to tackle local outbreaks.

This was the mob that could not even run a prison.

[pErvinalia]

It's a bit hard to keep up, but I think Serco are running our offshore refugee concentration camps.

[Brian Peacock]

It's a common neo-liberal conceit: starting with the premise that government is incapable of organising a piss-up in brewery, you outsource implementation of policy to the private sector to place a political buffer between responsibility for the policy and responsibility for its implementation, while handing out oodles of cash to your donors of course.

[laklak]

I thought that was neocon. I always get them confused.

[Brian Peacock]

Neocons are the lick-spittles of the neo-liberal hegemon. They too will be mulched and fed to the larval young of our insectoid overlords when Galaxian finally triggers the tachyon signal array.

[laklak]

Can't come too soon, IMO.

[Scot Dutchy]

The Glorious Twelfth.

[Svartalf]

OK, I get the first fraime but definitely not the second.