New Education Ministers

[sunny-dave]

"This is a team that represents Britain" says David Cameron.

http://oi62.tinypic.com/35i1t8y.jpg

What do you think?

[Gromit]

We should not be surprised.

They are obviously listening to public who complained about too many old Etonians in the Cabinet.

[factor-fiction]

It's a shame but not a surprise.
Private school students do rather well in life generally and certainly in Politics. And it's not just the Tories-this article showed that less than half the Shadow Cabinet went to comprehensives.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100058028/just-how-diverse-is-the-shadow-cabinet/

[Quizmonster]

FF, you appear to be comparing a single Government DEPARTMENT with an entire Opposition CABINET to make a point about "privileged" education. Isn't that rather apples-and-pearsish?

[youngmafbog]

Why bash those that had a private education. They didnt choose it, but then I suppose in the left wing politics of envy reason is not required.

[gness]

Think you have the wrong end of the stick, YMB....☺

[sunny-dave]

I'm not bashing those who suffered a Private Education, ymb - I was fortunate/unlucky enough to have one myself (via a scholarship system).

[ The choice of 'fortunate' or 'unlucky' depends on whether I remember the excellence of the academic education, or the disastrously poor pastoral care and the hopelessly skewed world view that they tried (largely unsuccessfully) to impose on me ]

I'm just horrified that our public education system is to be in the hands of people who (with one very partial exception) have no experience of the system at all.

[Gromit]

An the alternative?

Labour's Shadow Education Minister is Tristram Hunt who went to the private University College School.

[New Judge]

But, dave, you do not have to have experience of something as a customer to be able to administer it. In fact, as far as State education goes, it could be argued that the very experience makes many people singularly ill equipped to administer State education or indeed anything much else.

I simply don't understand the notion that only the State is able to properly provide some services (education and healthcare immediately spring to mind) when in fact quite the opposite is true. There is no doubt that private education is far superior to the State version. This is not entirely the State's fault; it's often because, having to take all-comers, many state schools are burdened with a high proportion of pupils who have no intention of learning and do their best - usually quite successfully and often with the collaboration of their parent(s)/significant other(s) - to scupper the education of the children that do want to learn. Private schools have no such problem as they quickly identify and deal with any miscreants.

This problem will persist and worsen in the UK as the number of "good" state schools gradually diminishes with government reducing the ways in which they can legitimately select their pupils. The end result of this is that decent jobs (including those in politics) will become more and more the preserve of those who have received a private education because they will be the only people educated to a decent enough level..

[Gromit]

// you do not have to have experience of something as a customer to be able to administer it. //

Poppycock.

So the Business Secretary need not have run a business, or the Transport Minister need never to have caught a bus or a train?

The Government are spending our tax money on providing or administering services for all. the vast majority of people in this country are Educated by the State. It should not be run by a small elite who have not knowledge of that system.