Education secretary outlines plans to make exams tougher – and says he would welcome schools taking lessons from business The exam system in England and Wales needs reform, and for many subjects that means a return to traditional exams and less coursework, according to the education secretary, Michael Gove. In an interview in the Times, Gove says that, like Tony Blair, he is pushing the academy system. He goes on to say: “It has become easier to get an A at A-level or GCSE than it used to be, and that’s a problem … If you are doing art or geography, you’ve got to have a work of art or a field trip. But if you’re doing mathematics or English or French then the logical thing is to have a proper rigorous exam at the end of year 11 [GCSEs].” Gove said there had been previous attempts to make science relevant, by linking it to contemporary concerns such as climate change or food scares. But he said: “What [students] need is a rooting in the basic scientific principles, Newton’s laws of thermodynamics and Boyle’s law.” His daughter did not understand the way history was taught, Gove said, because it was not chronological: “My daughter does toys through the ages, then she does the Vikings, then the Greeks; and she gets confused.” He added: “We are now seeing with the new exams regulator how we can make GCSEs tougher. Exam boards need to sharpen up their act. We are also saying in GCSEs that you need to award marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar. We need to have stretching exams which compare with the world’s most rigorous.” Gove would welcome school heads taking a lesson from business: “We now have great headteachers who will become educational entrepreneurs. They will build a brand and create chains.” He said he would have no “ideological objection to profit-making institutions” in education – but schools did not need to be profit-making: “I think a profit motive would turn the academies movement from something that is all about philanthropy and generosity into something that was seen in a different light.” The education secretary also thinks that, in A-levels, state schools are suffering at the expense of private schools, which are opting for a more traditional-style exam, the Pre-U. He said: “If private schools are having an elite qualification and state schools are being left with a qualification that can’t match it, that is of profound concern to me, so we do need to do something to strengthen confidence in A-levels.” Schools Education policy GCSEs Michael Gove A-levels Jonathan Paige guardian.co.uk
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Mohamed VI rewrites constitution and gives elected politicians greater power after biggest protests in decades Morocco’s king, Mohamed VI, has responded to the Arab spring by rewriting his country’s constitution and giving greater power to elected politicians but leaving him with a firm grip on security, the army and religious matters. The draft constitution, which will be put to referendum on 1 July, sees some power being shifted away from the Arab world’s longest-serving dynasty and from the tight clique of palace officials who dominate Morocco. Among other measures, the new constitution explicitly states that the king will now have to pick the country’s prime minister from the party that wins elections to what, up until now, has been a largely rubber-stamp parliament. While the government gains executive powers, the 47-year-old monarch has kept exclusive control over the military and over religion. And analysts pointed out that while the prime minister would be in charge of domestic policy, he does so with the king’s permission and with the monarch still able to pass his own decrees. “He is sharing some executive powers with the PM [but] still retains significant ones,” said the respected, if anonymous, Maghreb Blog on its Twitter feed. “The changes do nothing to his real discretionary, religious and military powers.” Mohamed VI presented the measuresto the country in a TV broadcast. The king said the constitutional reform “confirms the features and mechanisms of the parliamentary nature of the Moroccan political system” and laid the basis for an “efficient, rational constitutional system whose core elements are the balance, independence and separation of powers, and whose foremost goal is the freedom and dignity of citizens. After facing the biggest protests in decades, the king ordered a committee in March to draw up the new constitution after discussions with political parties, trade unions and NGOs. Moroccans first took to the streets in February, but the country has not experienced the degree of violence seen elsewhere in Arab countries. Officials claimed that respect for the king combined with a regime that is more liberal and less severely policed than elsewhere had helped prevent a Tunisian or Egyptian-style uprising. But Moroccans are clearly fed up with rampant corruption which, according to US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks, stretches right into the heart of Mohamed VI’s palace. Those cables show one former US ambassador to Rabat condemning “the appalling greed of those close to King Mohammed VI”. “Major institutions and processes of the Moroccan state are used by the palace to coerce and solicit bribes in the real estate sector,” one senior Moroccan businessman complained to US diplomats Corruption is also rampant in courts, business and health services, according to Transparency Maroc. Many Moroccans would like to see their country enjoy the sort of economic growth that countries such as Tunisia or Turkey have had over the past two decades. The king said a constitutional court would also be set up while “the draft constitution criminalises any interference, corruption or influence peddling with regard to the judiciary”. He said the constitution “criminalizes torture, enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention and all forms of discrimination and inhuman, degrading practices” while also upholding “freedom of the press and of expression and opinion.” within unspecified legally enforcable boundaries. The reforms will be closely monitored by Gulf Arab monarchies, which have so far dodged calls at home for reforms and fret that major change in Morocco might fuel further demands from reformists in their countries. In Muslim Morocco the monarch is formally considered the nation’s religious leader with the title of commander of the faithful. But the new constitution will see his status changed slightly, with the term “sacred” disappearing but the monarch still remaining “inviolable”, the king said. The referendum date gives Moroccans – 44 % of whom are illiterate – just two weeks to find out about and debate the new constitution’s contents. Few commentators doubted, however, that it would be passed even though pro-democracy activists from the February 20 movement dismissed many of the changes as cosmetic. After the speech ended, cars flying Moroccan flags drove through the streets of the capital Rabat honking their horns, with passengers cheering into the night and young people marched along the wide boulevards banging drums and cheering. Najib Chawki, a February 20 activist, said the constitutional reform draft “does not respond to the essence of our demands which is establishing a parliamentary monarchy. We are basically moving from a de facto absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy”. Activists claimed that the reform programme initially introduced by King Mohamed, who brought in greater freedoms and improved women’s rights when he inherited the throne 12 years ago, had effectively ground to a halt. Activists on Twitter said that pro-government mobs had attacked at least one pro-democracy activist Morocco Arab and Middle East unrest Africa Giles Tremlett guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Mohamed VI rewrites constitution and gives elected politicians greater power after biggest protests in decades Morocco’s king, Mohamed VI, has responded to the Arab spring by rewriting his country’s constitution and giving greater power to elected politicians but leaving him with a firm grip on security, the army and religious matters. The draft constitution, which will be put to referendum on 1 July, sees some power being shifted away from the Arab world’s longest-serving dynasty and from the tight clique of palace officials who dominate Morocco. Among other measures, the new constitution explicitly states that the king will now have to pick the country’s prime minister from the party that wins elections to what, up until now, has been a largely rubber-stamp parliament. While the government gains executive powers, the 47-year-old monarch has kept exclusive control over the military and over religion. And analysts pointed out that while the prime minister would be in charge of domestic policy, he does so with the king’s permission and with the monarch still able to pass his own decrees. “He is sharing some executive powers with the PM [but] still retains significant ones,” said the respected, if anonymous, Maghreb Blog on its Twitter feed. “The changes do nothing to his real discretionary, religious and military powers.” Mohamed VI presented the measuresto the country in a TV broadcast. The king said the constitutional reform “confirms the features and mechanisms of the parliamentary nature of the Moroccan political system” and laid the basis for an “efficient, rational constitutional system whose core elements are the balance, independence and separation of powers, and whose foremost goal is the freedom and dignity of citizens. After facing the biggest protests in decades, the king ordered a committee in March to draw up the new constitution after discussions with political parties, trade unions and NGOs. Moroccans first took to the streets in February, but the country has not experienced the degree of violence seen elsewhere in Arab countries. Officials claimed that respect for the king combined with a regime that is more liberal and less severely policed than elsewhere had helped prevent a Tunisian or Egyptian-style uprising. But Moroccans are clearly fed up with rampant corruption which, according to US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks, stretches right into the heart of Mohamed VI’s palace. Those cables show one former US ambassador to Rabat condemning “the appalling greed of those close to King Mohammed VI”. “Major institutions and processes of the Moroccan state are used by the palace to coerce and solicit bribes in the real estate sector,” one senior Moroccan businessman complained to US diplomats Corruption is also rampant in courts, business and health services, according to Transparency Maroc. Many Moroccans would like to see their country enjoy the sort of economic growth that countries such as Tunisia or Turkey have had over the past two decades. The king said a constitutional court would also be set up while “the draft constitution criminalises any interference, corruption or influence peddling with regard to the judiciary”. He said the constitution “criminalizes torture, enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention and all forms of discrimination and inhuman, degrading practices” while also upholding “freedom of the press and of expression and opinion.” within unspecified legally enforcable boundaries. The reforms will be closely monitored by Gulf Arab monarchies, which have so far dodged calls at home for reforms and fret that major change in Morocco might fuel further demands from reformists in their countries. In Muslim Morocco the monarch is formally considered the nation’s religious leader with the title of commander of the faithful. But the new constitution will see his status changed slightly, with the term “sacred” disappearing but the monarch still remaining “inviolable”, the king said. The referendum date gives Moroccans – 44 % of whom are illiterate – just two weeks to find out about and debate the new constitution’s contents. Few commentators doubted, however, that it would be passed even though pro-democracy activists from the February 20 movement dismissed many of the changes as cosmetic. After the speech ended, cars flying Moroccan flags drove through the streets of the capital Rabat honking their horns, with passengers cheering into the night and young people marched along the wide boulevards banging drums and cheering. Najib Chawki, a February 20 activist, said the constitutional reform draft “does not respond to the essence of our demands which is establishing a parliamentary monarchy. We are basically moving from a de facto absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy”. Activists claimed that the reform programme initially introduced by King Mohamed, who brought in greater freedoms and improved women’s rights when he inherited the throne 12 years ago, had effectively ground to a halt. Activists on Twitter said that pro-government mobs had attacked at least one pro-democracy activist Morocco Arab and Middle East unrest Africa Giles Tremlett guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …California coastal officials have rejected the quaint plan from U2 guitarist the Edge (aka David Evans) to put up five mansions on an environmentally sensitive ridgeline above Malibu, reports the Los Angeles Times . “In 38 years of this commission’s existence, this is one of the three worst projects that I’ve…
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Attacked by a Haitian mob, kidnapped by Gaddafi’s troops, shot in Afghanistan… Who’d be a war photographer? • In pictures: the life of a war photographer (contains some graphic images) Adam Ferguson, Afghanistan, 2009 I was one of the first on
Continue reading …Green Lantern is chock-full of special effects, but they’re not enough to rescue this superhero flick. Critics complain: “ Green Lantern is bad,” writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times . It’s “impeded by lame jokes; evocations of better movies; an ugly-bruise palette of black, green, and purple; and a formulaic…
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Jean-Claude Juncker says the UK’s former chancellor was the key reason the fledgling single currency survived Ken Clarke, the coalition’s justice minister, is today named as the man who saved the euro project from meltdown in the early 1990s. According to Jean-Claude Juncker, the current president of the eurogroup, Clarke – then Tory chancellor and scourge of his party’s Eurosceptics – argued persuasively for the retention of the single currency and was the key reason it survived. Back in the summer of 1993, the pre-euro system of tethering the continent’s currencies together was creaking badly under the strain of the German Bundesbank’s rigour. Infamously, Britain had already bailed out the previous September on Black Wednesday, wrecking the career of chancellor Norman Lamont. Now France was also on the brink and planning a coup, according to Juncker, then Luxembourg’s finance minister. “It was the day after King Baudouin of Belgium died, a Sunday, a secret meeting,” he says. The king died on 31 July that year. “The French tried to get Germany and the Dutch kicked out of the EMS [European monetary system] and to take control of the rest. I told them that Luxembourg would also quit.” Clarke, three months into the job of chancellor after succeeding Lamont, would have none of it and rode to Europe’s rescue, Juncker says in an interview published on Saturday in Munich’s Süddeutsche Zeitung. “Clarke came and organised an even smaller secret meeting. If you go, he told me, everything will collapse. You will never get this thing again. There will be no currency union. But I would like that we can join it one day.” Clarke’s starring role in resuscitating the infant euro left a lasting impression on Juncker, who has attended more than 90 EU summits and is a walking encyclopaedia on European politics. The Luxembourger, who also chairs the eurogroup of the 17 countries in the single currency, appears convinced that the UK will eventually see the light. “In the long-term thinking of the British, joining the euro is an issue,” he contends. “The UK will introduce the euro. On the day that the British realise that the pound is a regional currency without any international influence, they will join.” Kenneth Clarke Euro Currencies Economics Euro European Union Ian Traynor guardian.co.uk
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Pensions revolt won’t be like the miners – because we’ll win, says Unison general secretary Dave Prentis The leader of the largest public sector union promises to mount the most sustained campaign of industrial action the country has seen since the general strike of 1926, vowing not to back down until the government has dropped its controversial pension changes. Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison – which has 1.4 million members employed by the state – described plans for waves of strike action, with public services shut down on a daily basis, rolling from one region to the next and from sector to sector. He said there was growing anger over a public sector pay freeze that could trigger more disputes further down the line and that the changes would unfairly penalise women, who form the majority of low-paid public sector workers. “It will be the biggest since the general strike. It won’t be the miners’ strike. We are going to win.” In an interview with the Guardian, Prentis – who also chairs the public sector group at the TUC – repeatedly insisted that he still hopes to negotiate a settlement with the government through talks that are currently under way. But the prospect of a resolution looks increasingly remote after the government unilaterally set out details of the new public sector pension scheme on Friday, pre-empting the conclusion of the talks. Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the TUC, called the move “deeply inflammatory”. Prentis said: “I strongly believe that one day of industrial action will not change anyone’s mind in government. We want to move towards a settlement. The purpose of industrial action is not industrial action, it is to get an agreement that is acceptable and long-lasting. But we are prepared for rolling action over an indefinite period. This coalition has got to open its eyes and see that in just reacting to a Daily Mail view of the public sector they are walking into a trap of their own making.” Prentis also called on the Labour party to support the unions’ battle against the pension changes, saying that remaining silent will “become an issue”. The government has confirmed that it will raise pension contributions by 3.2 percentage points, increase the retirement age to 66 and move to a career average scheme to replace the more generous final salary version. Ministers argue it is unfair for other taxpayers to pay for more generous schemes for public employees than they might get in the private sector. The unions say it amounts to an additional tax on public sector workers, with their additional contributions – a de facto pay cut – being used to reduce the deficit rather than fund pensions. It comes on top of job cuts, a pay freeze and controversial plans such as those for the NHS. Prentis said that while pensions were the focus of the unions’ industrial dispute – and the only issue that they could legally jointly strike on – his members were equally angry about the coalition’s deficit reduction programme and its effects on the public sector. “You can’t just look at what’s happening around pensions as a single issue. All our members provide public services. You look at what this coalition has decided to do to reduce the deficit and it’s decided that most of the deficit reduction programme will be at the expense of our public services,” he said. “The people that we represent are facing redundancy, a two-year pay freeze, while inflation is 5% and gas prices are going up 20%, and they are desperately worried about privatisation of the services they have committed their working lives to.” He accused the government of trying to “soften up” public sector workers’ rights to pave the way to privatising elements of the state. Referring to a consultation that could remove state employees’ rights to keep their public sector pensions if their service is outsourced to the private sector, he said: “It means that cowboys that we used to have in the 1980s can put in bids that will always undermine the public service bid and they will get the contract not on the quality of work but because they are cheapest. It’s just to soften the way for privatisation.” Turning to Labour, to which Unison is affiliated – individual members have an opt-out – he said: “We want our Labour party to be the voice of opposition. We’re worried that some of the senior people in the party still have to make statements as if they are in power, not opposition.” Prentis added: “I’ve got a lot of time for Ed Miliband. He’s new, he’s only been there for eight months and he will improve – and we’ve got to give him time to do that – but the way in which certain elements in the party are not uniting where we need them to be is not helping. If the Labour party stays quiet that will be an issue. This isn’t a kneejerk reaction, this will be a long programme of action and we will expect the Labour party to support that.” Unison is one of Labour’s largest donors, giving £423,000 in the past year alone. Prentis said he had full support from his members and they were now recruiting support for the campaign outside the workplace, sending representatives into community groups to garner support. A motion at the union’s conference next week would formalise this campaign, recognising that traditional workplace union recruitment is falling. Angela Eagle, Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “What we are seeing today is the latest calamitous episode of this government’s completely chaotic way of running the country. “Today, Danny Alexander [the Treasury chief secretary] has made an announcement about the retirement age whilst they are in the middle of negotiations with the trade unions. If they are serious about reforming public sector pensions and serious about getting this proposal agreed then Danny Alexander has gone about it in the most incompetent way imaginable.” She added: “Strikes are always a failure on both sides. Everyone agrees public sector pensions need to change as people live longer. But the government should be getting round the table and talking changes through. Instead we have got another bout of mismanagement and chaos.” Trade unions Public sector pensions Public sector pay Public sector cuts Public services policy Public finance Polly Curtis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Afghan troops are killing US troops in numbers that “may be unprecedented between ‘allies’ in modern history,” according to a new classified military report that warns the killings are becoming a “rapidly growing systemic threat” that could undermine the war effort. Based on interviews with 600 Afghan troops, the report,…
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