Tory attempt to privatise the UK school system an offensive farce.

Michael Gove as Education secretary is all about climb downs, first the election pledge of all children having a reading age of at least eleven when they left primary school stopped being mentioned and now his "free school" mission (privatisation by the back door) has been reduced from initial claims of hundreds of school champing at the bit to be free of the national curriculum to sixteen schools that will be "free" by the start of the 2011 academic year. Still, these sixteen harbingers of free market manufactured ignorance do manage to cram a great deal of awfulness in.

For one thing they're definitely preparing children to be able to function in the modern world:

The government backed plans for the West London Free School, which includes the journalist and author Toby Young on the steering committee. The school will have compulsory Latin for pupils aged 11 to 14, and a choice of either Latin or classical civilisation at GCSE

I mean sure people are moaning not enough people are taking foreign language GCSEs for living languages but our kids really need to know a dead one (yes pedants a small population in Switzerland does still speak something akin to Latin, this hardly justifies it as a GCSE). The reality however is an attempt to wag the dog, private schools in the UK still teach latin and the classics (a throwback to when it was considered a decent way to learn about ancient history) so by teaching children these two things it is hoped that they will be as socially mobile and as well educated as private school children, which is patently absurd. For a good example of the perception poshness /success being connected to knowing latin and the classics watch this video:



We also get the further entrenchment of faith schools, in Britain you don't need to home educate to warp your child and protect them from reality:

There is a distinctly religious strand to the first wave, with seven of the 16 having faith affiliations. Among those expected to open next September will be two Jewish schools in London, a Hindu school in Leicester, a Sikh school in Birmingham and three with a Christian ethos.

It should be noted than in none of these schools is there a requirement for the standard type of RE lesson, wherein children are educated about world faiths with (at least in theory) no overt bias towards any particular one. In faith schools the RE requirement can be met simply with lessons from the scripture of the schools' chosen religion.

Well into the article we also get a carefully worded hint about the true aim of these "free" schools:

The new schools, many more of which are expected to be approved in coming years, could also pose a challenge to the teaching unions because they emphasise raising standards through longer hours and more flexible teaching. Both methods could prove contentious.

and then a little bit later on

Two schools in London will be run in partnership with Ark, an academy sponsor backed by hedge fund money – and at least one of these will also be backed by the Sutton Trust, set up by the millionaire philanthropist Sir Peter Lampl.

Why I'm sure these rich folks with their hedge funds are undermining teacher's rights for the good of the kids, there can't be any aspiration to private profiteering from these ventures now can there? That was sarcasm btw