Birmingham University Labour Students

The National Youth Parliament held a debate in the House of Lords last month, and it was broadcast on BBC Parliament and you can catch it on iPlayer here. The debate was used to decide which three of six motions would constitute their national campaigns for the year. The first of these to be discussed is a [...]

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Outlined here by Hari. Pretty much agree with everything he says.

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The BULS blog continues to confound expectations.  January was its best month ever reaching 3,222 visits.  That means it beat its previous best in December of 2,648.  In a statement to the press, having reached the landmark early in the morning, a weary eyed Tom Marley (BULS chair) said; “Under my leadership the blog has gone from strength [...]

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Right.  Before the Tories beat me to it, and perhaps some comrades may disagree with what I am about to say, I wanted to say how AMAZING I think McQualifications are.  Fantastic.
This is a report that McDonalds, Flybe and Network Rail are soon to be delivering proper qualifications.  Something like A levels in catering management is [...]

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The Guardian reported the other day that the Daily Mail is enquiring into sponsoring an academy.
I have never been too hot on the academy idea and this is not improving my confidence.

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This for me is a real sign of the times.
The Labour government is going to do a really progressive thing and increase the school leaving age to 18. Instead of talking about progressive politics however Ed Balls is using the language of ‘enforcement’ and getting ‘drop out teenagers of the streets.’ 
“With Gordon Brown has already pledged to [...]

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On Saturday I attended the AGM of Comprehensive Future, which has featured on this blog before. The group campaigns for an end to selection in English schools and an end to the devastating effects it has on the education and self esteem on those who “fail” school entrance exams. The meeting was well attended and [...]

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Splits within the Conservative Party over current policy are undoubtedly deep rooted, this is evident merely from the blog on the Birmingham University Conservative Future blog. In particular they are discussing the merits of so called ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees.
This argument stems from a report from the Tax Payers Allowance about how vast sums of money are being [...]

Filed under: Education, Student Politics | 3 Comments »

What really gets to me about Tory policy is the lack of humanity behind it all. Take, for example, today’s suggestion that the one-in-five pupils who don’t reach minimum standards on leaving primary school be help back a year. Aside from the logistical issues (lack of space, facilities, teachers, what if they fail again, etc) burns [...]

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 Today the A-Level pass rate rose again-congratulations to those who got their grades, and comiserations to those who didn’t. I have no time for those who think the exams have got easier- if they were ever harder than the papers  I surrendered six months of social life to two years ago then it’s a wonder anyone [...]

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Percentage of Tory MPs who attended private school: 59%
Percentage of Labour MPs who attended private school: 18%
Percentage of UK population who attended private school: 7%
Conservatives: In Touch…
(Figures correct as of December 2005, courteousy of Sutton Trust http://www.suttontrust.com/reports/PoliticiansBackgrounds_09-Dec-05.pdf)

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Watching the special schools edition of Question Time the other night, my blood predictably approached boiling point a few times, but what really made me angry was a comment from Douglas Murray. Described variously as “Britain’s only neo-conservative”, and the “Right’s Michael Moore”, he suggested that a university education should be the preserve of the [...]

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Jacob Hunt Stewart, Honorary member of BULS, Treasurer of West Midlands Young Labour and former Youth and Student Officer of Selly Oak CLP writes his first guest blog - on the marketisation of education.
In 1997 our Labour Government came into power with a commitment to ‘education, education, education,’ and a lot has been done for education; a [...]

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The IPPR recently suggested that national testing at ages 11 and 14 should be scrapped and replaced with a system that concentrates less on training pupils to pass a test and more on improving their reading, writing and maths skills.  They go on to recommend a system whereby pupils who are at risk of leaving [...]

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