{"id":7278,"date":"2018-07-10T06:57:33","date_gmt":"2018-07-10T06:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=7278"},"modified":"2018-07-10T06:57:33","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T06:57:33","slug":"a-different-sort-of-vital-statistics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2018\/07\/10\/a-different-sort-of-vital-statistics\/","title":{"rendered":"A different sort of vital statistics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The launch of the UKSSD report,\u00a0Measuring Up<\/em>, was ignored by all of the news outlets I pay to read. \u00a0Even the Guardian<\/em> (which I don't pay for because I can't read it anymore) didn't mention it, but I came across a fine headline with 'measuring up' in it which had an SDG-related theme:<\/p>\n

Miss Peru contestants accuse country of not measuring up on gender violence \u2013 Beauty pageant competitors refuse to list vital statistics during live TV broadcast, instead stating figures on violence against women in Peru<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It's fantastic; do watch the video<\/a>. \u00a0A pity then (about the lack of news, not Miss Peru).<\/p>\n

There have been a couple of comments on SDG4 \u2013 quality education. \u00a0This is from my colleague, Morgan Phillips:<\/p>\n

\"The prognosis isn't great, which isn't terribly surprising. The UKSSD say this<\/a>:\u00a0While there's an enormous amount to celebrate, the most vulnerable people and places in our society are increasingly being left behind.\u00a0<\/em>Economic inequality rumbles on and on, especially here in the UK. \u00a0You can download the report<\/a> in chapters, or in its entirety. \u00a0So far,\u00a0I've read Chapter 4, 'Quality education.'<\/a><\/p>\n

Here's what I found:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Putting aside the key flaw<\/a>\u00a0of the SDGs for a minute, it is hard to disagree with this statement:\u00a0SDG4 has a crucial role in promoting the achievement of the full spectrum of SDGs, enabling UK learners of all ages to take informed decisions and responsible actions and create sustainable societies now and for the future. (p. 5) \u00a0<\/em>Given this, it is interesting how performance against measures used by OFSTED, PISA, PIRLS etc., are being using to determine whether children are offered a quality education. \u00a0Many schools are doing well according to OFSTED and faring pretty well according to PISA etc, etc., all of which means the UK is scoring amber (defined as: some progress or aspect of the targets met<\/em>) on target 4.1. The report says very positive sounding things like: \u2018The vast majority of school-age children in the UK are offered an appropriate quality education', <\/em>so I guess we'll get the green<\/em> light soon, which will please the Rt. Hon.\u00a0Damien Hinds MP. \u00a0This is all great if you are happy with how OFSTED et al define an 'appropriate quality education';\u00a0<\/em>progress is being made, current policy trajectory: A OK.<\/p>\n

But.... to the achievement of whose goals is this \u2018quality education\u2019<\/em> appropriate? \u00a0The goals of the sustainablityists<\/em><\/a>? Or, the goals of the free market economists? I\u2019d suggest the latter hold greater sway in the design of OFSTED testing, PISA, PIRLS and all the rest. \u00a0Of course the UN (and no doubt the UKSSD too)\u00a0will say that free market economics, consumer capitalism and the SDGs are all mutually compatible. This is the<\/em> story that is being told through the SDGs. This is the paradigm we\u2019re stuck in; it feels increasingly like Stockholm syndrome.\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But where, I wonder, in all this are the alternative PISA \/ PIRL measures? \u00a0Where is the alternative OECD \u2013 let's call it the DCEO: Democratic Centred Educational Design. \u00a0Who is developing this?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The launch of the UKSSD report,\u00a0Measuring Up, was ignored by all of the news outlets I pay to read. \u00a0Even the Guardian (which I don't pay for because I can't read it anymore) didn't mention it, but I came across...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-new-publications"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}