Pushing God in Schools

God is a contentious topic, most of all when it comes to God in school.

In the UK, the majority of people call themselves Christian, mostly out of a mindless repetition of what their parents used to say.  Hardly any of this majority, though, pray, attend church or exhibit any identifiable characteristic of a Christian.

A large proportion of the UK, of course, is not Christian.  They may be active Muslims, Buddhists or atheist.

God's got his fingers in education within Wales.

Whilst I have no problem whatsoever with those of a religious persuasion, or in measured teaching of religion,  I do have very great concerns about state-sponsored religious education when it is not balanced in presenting the non-religious view.

Here in Wales, a remarkable statutory requirement is in place to ensure Christian values predominate and our kids are brainwashed into becoming bible bashers.  Or so they hope. Standing committees known as SACREs are in place across the nation, consisting of do-good preachers, religious zealots and such like who like to see their position as telling others what to do.

In Wales, such religious fanaticism is usually blended to make a toxic mix of public sector jobs, narrow-minded welsh nationalism and, more often than you might want to comfortably accept, membership of the Masonic lodge.  In other words, these are the kinds of people that can only get on and influence the world through arse-licking and joining childish roll-up-your-trousers kids' clubs.

The harsh reality is that, whilst these committees are worrying, single-issue aberrations from the past, nobody really takes any notice of them.  Most schools have simply got more important things to do.

Sitting quietly, often lax in their presentation of what actually goes on in those meetings, these SACRE men do, however, do their best to pontificate on how they can make schools - that is, our kids - more Christian.  I'm not sure how many decades behind society these people are, but the sad fact for them is that whilst you may be able to just about get a kid to repeat some bible stuff because they have to, as soon as morning service is over, they ditch God.  Once out of school, they overwhelmingly ditch Him for good.

It's simply a quirk of power and tradition that we still have these SACRE bodies.  A once-powerful church swung legislation in its favour, whereas in Wales, such laws found willing supporters in the shape of 19th-century attitude preachers and good, old-fashioned welsh values (according to them.)

I'd be much more willing to accept SACREs were they balanced by a statutory advisory body on Science.  But they aren't.  In an overwhelmingly secular society, where science and technology have already pushed religion to the severe margins, there ought to be no special, separate place for religion over science.

It's time someone living in chapel la-la land looked at the statistics.  If they did, they'd have to accept that Wales will never be going back to building chapels and churches around every street corner.  Personally, I'd be happy to see a few mosques and synagogues popping up to add some welcome diversity in this monotonal principality.  But I doubt the chapel-meisters would welcome those with open arms, because they are generally not the tolerant sort of people Jesus would have promoted. 

Remarkably, whilst we in the UK think of the US as still locked in church-going and bible-bashing, that view is not generally correct when it comes to schools.  It is, in fact, unlawful to promote (or inhibit) religion in US schools under the First Amendment, a remarkably democratic piece of early law-making that, sadly, has no parallel in the UK.

So, let's make an amendment of our own to change the law, ditch these outdated SACREs, and let those retired, white-haired, white-skinned chapel men go to their maker.  That would be the best way to move our children - and the failed welsh education system - into a brighter future.

Schools: Now it's Cardiff

Cardiff's LEA is the latest casualty in inspectorate reports.  A couple of days ago, Estyn, the welsh inspectorate, classified it as needing "significant improvement", or one step above the bottom, "unsatisfactory."

As this blog endlessly reminds readers, the quality of education, and the ability of anyone to improve it, is in very deep doo-doo, and nobody is taking decisive action.

Because LEAs have consistently been unable to improve the situation, they are claimed to no longer have this responsibility.  Quite why we still have 22 LEAs can probably only be explained by some back-room dealings to ensure those in well-paid jobs can get to their pension without too much fuss.  Those hoping for a cut or even an abolishing of LEAs altogether, have been disappointed.

But, you may also be disappointed if you apply some thought - never a welcome thing with councils - to how 'consortia' are constituted.

Who are the members?  Well, for north Wales, which has come in for particular criticism from Cardiff Bay over the past few months, this is not as readily-determined as it could be.  Their current website is full of tosh about their hopes, but precious little is given away as to who does what.  A large part of the non-PR stuff seems to be accessible only to members.

What can be deduced from the sparse documents made available to the plebs, is that the consortium is simply a gathering of senior LEA staff from each of the constituent councils.

In other words, the consortium is nothing new at all - it is simply those LEAs pretending that, somehow, as a bigger group, they are different and better, and won't be liable to failure as many of them have been as standalone LEAs.

One could call it a gathering of the failed.

So now you know.  Not only have the bigwigs managed to keep their LEAs and perks from the chop, they've shape-shifted into what is in many senses, and quite falsely, being presented to the public as a new way of doing things.  But if the same people are in new clothes, what, other than the clothes, has changed?

Just like the welsh TV channel that nobody watches, we're yet again stuck with the same, tired old actors, and a comfortable knowledge that today is as familiar as yesterday.  That's education.  That's Wales.

Anglesey's New Education Clothes

For as long as anyone's been using their brain, the more considered observers of society have noted how quick the ruling class is to produce new clothes for the Emperor when things aren't going so well.

Recently, the beleaguered Anglesey education department, taken under special measures by the Welsh Government in 2012 for being "unsatisfactory", has been handed a large, multi-million pound grant to consolidate its school buildings and overall services.  The council is match-funding the grant.

But, given that clever people of old were educated with little more than floors to sit on and sand to draw lines in, is spending money we haven't got on razzamatazz new buildings the answer Wales is looking for?

To me, this looks very much like trying to plaster over the criminally poor performance of the welsh education system.  No doubt buildings with better facilities will improve matters somewhat.  But they won't, of themselves, bring about the dramatic and urgent improvements needed to get our kids on a level that isn't, as it currently is, bottom of the PISA pile. 

No, we're so far behind the rest of the world that doing anything other than paying architects, lawyers and LEA chiefs huge wads to build new 'ta-da' constructs is simply too tall an order.  Ergo, revert to the usual answer: bamboozle!

Up and down the country, hundreds of millions are being spent on new school buildings.  Yet, if a fraction of that money were spent on the salaries of the best teachers, and schools given much more independence from the bureaucratic and interfering nightmare of LEA control, then we might find the cost-benefit analysis looks a lot more attractive.

Sadly, we are simply seeing more of the same old crap: throw money at tangible things politicians can say "Look!  See what we have given you!  We are already addressing the problems.  Be grateful and vote for us!"

With a population almost entirely switched off from the self-importance and, more locally, basket-case activities of politicians, far too many tick their ballot boxes without a second thought.  On Anglesey, the electoral results clearly show people, when it comes to the quiet anonymity of their polling booth, vote predominantly for those they know and speak welsh, irrespective of how rubbish they actually are as their representative.

So, the next time you find yourself slightly awed by the glitzy new multimedia, green-powered, sedum-roofed local school, spare a moment to consider that the kids educated in there - and their kids after them - will be the ones paying for it when the current politicians have taken their credit.  It really is 'buy kudos today, pay later'.  Or, as the same politicians always wag a finger at, exactly what we shouldn't do.

Spare a thought also for those countless ones before us who have moved humanity on in leaps, not by relaxing in plush new schools, but by being blessed with naturally superb teachers and an application of talent. 

Home Schooling

Families meet in all sorts of weird and wonderful places.  Here, they exchange views, gossip, and often very valuable information.

Recently, a close friend of the family revealed that her primary-age daughter was experiencing bullying at school.  Despite rafts of documents claiming 'concern', 'best practice' and 'good family relations' from the school and LEA in question (that'll be Anglesey LEA), the family alleges that the bullying has not been properly addressed.  Indeed, the mother felt it had not been taken seriously at all.

As a result, the child has been taken out of the school and is now educated at home, and appears to be working out well.  More recently, an inspection found that the mother was acting in an exemplary manner in teaching her child at home.  Praise, indeed.

The removal took place about three months ago.  The 'care' and 'welfare' from the LEA?  According to the family, they have received no contact at all, despite some new 'policies' on home schooling contact published recently.

Mind you, most people wouldn't want much contact from an education service labelled in 2012 as "unsatisfactory" by Estyn, the welsh inspectorate, leading to it being put in special measures.

Oh Dear! Anglesey's Ad-Hoc Data Protection System

During the summer of 2013, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) swept in to the offices of Anglesey County Council to investigate their policies and procedures for handling personal data.

Whilst this was notionally an audit undertaken with the authority's consent, such audits are generally a marker of ineffective systems and triggered by significant failings.

From the uninsurable, flood-plain built offices of Anglesey: inadequate data protection systems.

Anglesey does not have a happy DPA history.  It's Chief Executive, Richard Parry Jones, has signed two undertakings (2012 edition here) in as many years to improve matters.

None of this seems to have led to any changes.

In a report dated October 2013, the ICO found:

• No corporate training system for data protection
• No defined corporate staff structure for data protection handling
• "Inappropriate" systems for storing and securing personal data

The Executive Summary of the report can be read below:

Ico Audit Isle of Anglesey County Council Executive Summary 20131014

Caffi Mon to Close

Oh dear!  The unimaginatively-named 'Caffi Mon', a canteen within the Anglesey Council offices, looks imminently set to close.

The chips are down at Anglesey Council's subsidised in-house cafe.

Making a claimed loss of £20,000 per annum, the cafe is said, rather quaintly by Unison, to offer staff a place where "they can get a reasonable meal at a decent price without having to go out in the rain."

What a terrible inconvenience, having to do what just about every other worker has to do, and go out, yes, in the rain no less, to buy a meal!

I doubt any of the taxpaying public will shed a tear over the closure of Caffi Mon.  But they may question why the council ever ran its own cafe in-house, where it appears it was always subsidised and never made a profit. A private company which once ran it vanished, presumably because, er, it wasn't profitable.

I wonder when we might see the abandonment of the St. David's day extra holiday afforded to Anglesey council staff?  According to one report, Swansea Council's loss for handing out a freebie holiday amounted to £1 million way back in 2007. 

And when will we see an end to the super-inflationary increase in senior officers' pay?  So out of control is the system within Councils that we learn now of very deep and unlawful payments to officers at Caerphilly Council.  It is erupting into a major scandal.  There is little doubt this kind of thing is much more widespread amongst the public sector.

Welsh vs. English - And a Return to Normal at Anglesey Council

One of the very annoying, disturbing, even, facts about Welsh politics is that you invariably find yourself entombed in a bizarre system where Welsh is the only language that will do.  English is sidelined on the implicit message that the English have invaded us, damaged our language, and ought to be kept outside the council gates, out in the real world, where only a handful of people speak it.

Peter Rogers.  He's had enough and quitted Anglesey Council.  Image: Daily Post/Trinity Mirror

Indeed, stop a typical person in the street and talk to them in Welsh, and their actual fluency and facility with the language will be very poor.  Liberally interspersed with English words, bad corruptions of English words and of course, punctuated by plenty of 'yeah'.  The pure Welsh are a minority breed, mostly approaching or beyond retirement age, and often having occupied or occupying well-paid public sector jobs.  These are the so-called elite, often labelled the 'Taffia'.

Across Wales, only 23.4% of the population say they can speak Welsh.  This has sparked panic amongst the Taffia, who want to force-feed everyone until the damn well speak the Mother Tongue.

Today, we learn from the Daily Post that Councillor Peter Rogers, an independent member on Anglesey, has resigned.  The two reasons cited as prompting his departure are a lack of direction in the new, supposedly-revived council, and that the leader of the council is, it is alleged, not taking enough notice of non-welsh speaking members.

Cllr. Rogers has been labelled a "maverick" by the Daily Post.  I'm not sure that's fair.  Rogers became snared in a monumentally bizarre, expensive and ultimately futile case brought against him by the now defunct North Wales Police Authority.  In the tribunal, it was accepted that the Police Authority's code of conduct was not even engaged, because Rogers was not representing himself as a member of the Police Authority at the material time.

So, it seems that Rogers is giving us a hint of what is happening at meetings in the New-Age Council.  Whether or not his allegations of bias against those not speaking the Mother Tongue are reasonable or not is something we will have to leave to one side.   But Rogers clearly thinks this is going on.  He also give us an indication that the council is not moving forwards in representing the people in the way he envisages as the right way.

Little of this will come as any surprise to the people of Anglesey.  The Council has never worked properly since its inception, now a very long time ago.  It has simply gone from one crash barrier to the next, locked in stupid personality clashes and struggles for local, described as "parochial" power.

It seems a return to normal might be underway.

But the people of Anglesey have a lot of blame to shoulder.  They keep returning the same old people to power.  True, a few new faces appeared after a bit of shuffling of ward boundaries this year.  But there remain a group of old guards who ensure their popularity through (a) being welsh speaking and members of Plaid Cymru, and (b) being 'someone we know', however rubbish or questionable their past performance.

In short, the people of Anglesey vote for people that are not outsiders.  The island does not like people from outside its ranks, and rarely allows such people to come into the party.  Indeed, few outsiders want to come to Anglesey, leaving us with a limited pool of people at the bottom of the cooking pot to take up public positions for which they are often woefully unsuited.

Anglesey is out on a limb, both geographically and socially.  It is rapidly being left behind.  Its youngsters, thankfully, are leaving it behind, most notably because there is no meaningful work for them here anyway. Farms are closing shop as the average age of farmers rockets and their families move elsewhere. And the few large businesses that did come here - and only because of generous but unsustainable 'carrot' packages, have left.  Even the population is undergoing a strange metamorphosis, as the large number of people who retired or moved here from England in the 60s and 70s now pass away or go back to their point of origin, doubtless to take up a place in an old people's home.  Few want to buy their houses, which in some cases are falling apart as they wait for a buyer.

It is, I regret to say, the typical story of an island.  Some in Scotland have come together and made island life not only attractive but developed nice cottage economies.

That seems impossible on Anglesey, for all we do is sit around, hoping that one nuclear power station will solve all our problems when the existing one has done nothing of the sort.  Wylfa has remained a bizarre oasis of wealth and good jobs on the shores of an island that is otherwise an economic black hole.  A new Wylfa will bring some wealth for some people, but not the majority.  Not the single mums and unemployed who live in hovels, funded by a state that would rather label them as wasters, or worse.

No, there is no future for Anglesey.  Accept that, and we might change tack and start from the beginning.  We first need an identity, not dozens of different ones.  It's a tourist island, nothing else.  Put all effort into that, embrace and welcome tourists and the pounds in their pockets, and make it a really attractive, different place to be.  Don't try to be like everywhere else.