Choice in education (5)

Latest figures confirm the earlier estimates that some 100,000 children failed to get admission to their first choice secondary schools for September - about 1/5 of the total.

Not only does that make a mockery of ministers' promise of choice, it also removes one potentially effective automatic control mechanism.

Choice gives the opportunity to avoid bad schools. Good schools are encouraged by parental support, bad schools are left to wither away. When you stop that process, the bad schools are given an undeserved lifeline.

It must seem sometimes that it is a tremendous waste of resources to let an established school die away. BUT that is precisely the process that nature has used most effectively to ensure continuing development and renewal.

The New Diploma for 14 - 19 year olds

The government has announced a new Extended Diploma, the advanced version being worth four and a half A-levels. But heads' leader John Dunford says the complexity further threatens its chances of success.

He is quoted as saying: "People are not going to go for a qualification which is too difficult to understand".

As usual the government is trying to do the right thing but getting itself in a twist. Once again this is a top-down policy and schools and pupils are being told what's best for them. To do this there must be an army of bureaucrats and they have defined the curriculum in the best bureaucratic tradition.

If you want to look at just one example, try reading the curriculum "guidance" for level one of the creative and media diploma. It is a masterpiece! Nothing is specifically wrong with the intentions and, I'm sure every potential factor has been covered

BUT I defy any ordinary mortal to read it through. Certainly the poor 14 year olds for whom this caourse has been designed will not be encouraged by phrases like:

The ability to develop and express ideas within the fields of creative and media enables young people to 'imagine the world differently'. It offers them the opportunity to shape their identity, culture and society, through challenging what is known or accepted.

I wonder how many teachers will try to get through it. I cannot imagine such a demotivating way of trying to improve education. No wonder the head teachers are critical.