As the TES has reported:
The education recovery commissioner, Sir Kevan Collins has written to the prime minister Boris Johnson to offer his resignation this afternoon.
Sir Kevan was unveiled by Boris Johnson as the government's catch-up tsar just five months ago, tasked with overseeing the creation of a plan that would ensure pupils could recover after two periods of school closures during the coronavirus pandemic.
It was revealed this week that he had asked the government to fund a £15bn catch-up fund, but today the Department for Education came up with just £1.4bn.
Amazing, a person of principle in an age when that is so rare. And principled for all the right reasons. This was his letter of resignation:
We now know three things about this government's attitude to children, based on what they have done today.
The first is that they do not count when issuing data on population and the achievement of vaccine immunity: only adults apparently count for this, which is ludicrous.
Second, they have no intention of vaccinating them, leaving them at massive risk of long Covid (and yes, they get it).
And third, they are not worth investing in, as this evidence shows. I estimate the proposed investment per child at under £100, others make it around £60. The requirement was ten times that.
This is callous indifference. And if parents don't begin to notice they clearly don't care either.
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We have used one to one tutoring for our two children whilst doing their GCSEs usually in Maths, Languages and Music.
It’s expensive but worth it. It means less wine or visits to the pub and other treats. After tax I’m below the median wage by the way.
But the money offered here is derisory.
Again, this is what ‘inevitability politics’ look like and what the false narrative about money creates – a culture of powerlessness and policy that is more symbolic than effective.
If Government cannot do better than this – then why should it exist as it is?
I have to believe that in the long term, bastard politicians like this are only cutting their own throats.
I’ve a lot of sympathy with that
What’s the risk of children getting long Covid? You said that it is massive, but could you please provide a number for this and also answer the Thomas Sowell question “massive compared to what?”.
Go and read the tweets of epidemiologists like Christina Pagel and Deepti Gurdasani
And from personal experience, a goddaughter had it for ten months and was at hospital again yesterday. Age, 20
A particular mutation may increase in a population by chance, but it is much more likely to increase if it enjoys a selective advantage. The story is that although children can catch COVID, they are much less likely to transmit it. However, if a variant arises that transmitted more readily between children , it would have a substantial selective advantage. Opening schools and reducing precautions in schools should create powerful selection for a more transmissible variant. Britain’s chance to become a world leader in exporting COVID variants.
There is now a great deal of evidence that children are transmitting the virus
The claim that they are not is not true
Independent sage have addressed this issue
That should be ‘a good friend’s daughter’ there I think Richard.
I’m inclined to agree with Pilgrim. In this, the information age, with all manner of knowledge easily acessible, the govt are probably cutting their own throats by not slaking the thirst of those hungry for learning with establishment grooming masquerading as education. Those they don’t ‘educate’ will educate themselves and will probably find out all sorts of things govts, in particular govts composed largely of 5th-rate shabby little conmen, would prefer they didn’t know.
Edited!
Andrew Carey’s response is so typical of those who do not yet realise what they are dealing with: a virus that has learnt to mutate in order to reproduce – to live.
It does this by being allowed to exist OK by the host – human beings. Us!
Children ‘may not be affected ‘ now or as things are, but the longer this thing hangs around us, the more biological information it gets and it learns to adapt. As one expert in the field said in early 2020, it’s one of the cleverest bugs he’d ever seen. It fools the immune system by pretending to be part of the hosts biology. And then it is too late.
There is every chance that it will be underestimated and with dire consequences.
The big issue is that whatever the impact on children they transmit it
And that means herd immunity is I’m possible unless they are treated for it
It so happens that they also need protection from it
Yes – agree with that – but how long until it learns or gets significantly potent enough to really cause harm to children in the same way it affects adults? I’m not sure about the science but it is something I’d not like to find out the hard way.
[…] I referred to the resignation of the government's commissioner for education catch up yesterday. […]
[…] Why then pay base rate on them? Simply because before 2008 the balances were so small it did not matter and since then the interest rate has been so small again it did not matter. Near enough £800 billion is held on these accounts now, at an annual cost of £800 million, which in government funding terms is not great (but is, apparently, when allocating funds to pay for children’s education). […]
What I do wonder about though, and it doesnt just apply to education but to healthcare and other areas as well, is that we have a finite workforce in these areas, there may be some ‘inactive’ teachers/nurses/doctors who we may be able to get back but how many?
There is then a question of how schools are now structured with many as ‘Academies’ – can they be made to do the Governments bidding and what will they charge for this?
Finally of course are the management’s capable of making the changes needed and to bring people back into the workforce? I suggest there may be a big question mark over this.
There are vast numbers of trained teachers and nurses, and maybe even doctors, who do not now follow their professions because it is impossible for them to do so in current conditions
at my sons university there have been 4 suicides, there was none the last two..there are attempts on a weekly basis..on top of that the mental anxiety of not being able to socialise properly..there have been zero covid deaths though plenty, if not it seems the majority of students seem too have it..judging by what he and his friends say they are desperate, truly desperate to get things back to normal asap
That’s a common story I am afraid
I have two sons at university and it has not been good
One era is ending while the next, as they say, struggles to be born… today’s students are the inbetweenies, caught between eras. There’s probably not a great deal they can do about it either.