Labour education spokesman Kevin Brennan was ridiculed in the House of Commons when he failed to calculate a simple percentage during a row about education. The former economics teacher said three in 10 pupils got good GCSEs in 1997 but claimed that was 60 per cent.
It was an attempt to attack Education Secretary Michael Gove's ability at maths, but it backfired and prompted the cabinet minister to say percentages were not Labour's strong point. Following reports that the Government was considering ditching GCSEs in favour of a return to O-level style examinations, Mr Brennan said: ''Standards rose under Labour because we focused on literacy and numeracy.''
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The Oxford graduate and former head of economics at Radyr Comprehensive School in Cardiff added: ''It was we who inherited a weak system on maths and English from the Tories. Only three in 10 pupils, that's 60 per cent because I know the Secretary of State is not very good at maths, only three in 10 pupils got a good GCSE in 1997.''
Commons Speaker John Bercow was forced to intervene to appeal for calm as Tory MPs heckled the Labour frontbencher, who was standing in for Stephen Twigg, the shadow education secretary. Mr Brennan said: ''I was just testing their numeracy, it is of course 30.''
1 comment:
The joke about labour's argument is that they say that reintroducing O levels and CSEs will create a two tier system. Unfortunately they don't seem to be aware that the current GCSE system over which they presided was already a two tier system.
For example there are two maths papers. The harder one allows the candidate to get a grade up to the ridiculous A*, the maximum grade on the easier paper is B. Under the O level system the O level paper is graded A through F. The CSE is graded one through 5, with 1 being equivalent to a C on the O level paper. So in other words it works out exactly the same as the GCSE system.
On the GCSE system the candidates are taught either to the level of the harder or easier paper. The thing is under the current system every pupil who passes can claim to have a certain number of GCSE's. Under the new system you will only be able to claim to have an O level if you pass the O level paper.
I suspect the real reason labour object to this system is the same as their reasoning for granting tertiary colleges university status. They don't like anybody to be able to claim to be better than anybody else, even if they are.
That's not socialism - it's idiocy.
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