Yet another Gordon Brown headline grabbing pledge turns into yet another abject failure to deliver what was promised. The Great Leader, Saviour Of The World, told the NuLiebore Party Hot Air Fest that 300,000 failing school children would get additional one to one tuition to help them with English and Mathematics by 2011.
Now, after 11 dreary years of the current government, who had the mantra “Education, Education, Education” on achieving power, one might think that it was a dreadful admission of failure that these children needed such help. I will refrain from banging on yet again about the SATs fiasco, or failing standards in exams, or universities having to provide remedial classes; but, here’s Gordon pledging specific help for children being let down by the system they have presided over and interfered with for 11 years.
The target for help in the first year of his project was 30,000 children.
The actual achievement was that in the first year of the trial only 3,438 had received extra lessons in maths and 3,514 in English.
I hope he’ll be speaking to Ed about this.
The Penguin