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English literature GCSE is not being taken by almost one in four teenage pupils, according to figures published by the Conservative Party.

Why would that be, are they too idle to read, or is it the fact that they cannot read?

Conservative schools spokesman, Michael Gove said, "An understanding and knowledge of English literature is something we would all consider an essential part of education to GCSE level for all pupils. It is therefore shocking that the subject is in decline to the extent that more than one in four pupils does not even sit it at GCSE."

The Government's Schools Minister, Jim Knight countered with, "Michael Gove is talking nonsense. Both the English and English literature GCSEs include Shakespeare and other great works of English literature so it's wrong to say that pupils are not reading the classics.
Last year 96% of pupils sat an exam that included English literature and more young people are achieving the higher grades in English each year."

What Mr Gove is saying is, that pupils should read and understand the complete book, what Mr Knight is saying is, that they just read extracts from the book, and that’s just fine by him!

Which of these right honourable gentlemen would you prefer to oversee your child’s education? You decide!

What's in a Name?

It’s Tory Spring Conference time down in sleepy Cheltenham. The Conservative education spokesman, Michael Gove, has come up with a cunning plan, he wants to create primary academies.

I think that what he means is, he wants primary schools to become autonomous by taken them away from council control and letting them set their own curriculum and hours of attendance.

It’s not for me to say whether this is a good or a bad thing, what I’m objecting to is the way politicians are hijacking the language to suit their own means. If there is an obscure meaning to a word settled right at the bottom of an entry in the OED you can bet your life that they will use it for their own ends.

I mean, academy, that’s never a primary school. An academy is a seat of higher learning, a place where they read Plato and Socrates, not 'Jane and John' first reader books! Academia is a university or a group of students from a university, not a collection of Portakabins on a council estate. An academic is a researcher or even a professor at a university, not Miss Smith who teaches finger painting.

A failing secondary school in my area was re-branded an academy a couple of years ago. It’s still a failing secondary school!

A newly built secondary school in my area is called So and So Campus (the name has been changed to protect the innocent). Campus sounds as cool as academy, but did the person who christened it know that a campus is the word for the grounds and buildings of a university, and not a level of education?

So get wise all of you politicians, Shakespeare’s Juliet was lying when she said, “What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”