Nick Clegg’s speech yesterday at the London School of Economics provided another opportunity for a leading government figure to argue that the coalition are not just all about cuts and are very much focused on growth. The Deputy Prime Minister was brutally frank about the scale of the economic challenge facing the UK and the global economy and admitted that the situation is worse than it was 6 months ago.
George Osborne and his ministerial team faced their first set of Treasury questions after the summer recess in the House of Commons yesterday. Top on the agenda was economic growth and it will be this issue that will come to dominate the political landscape over the next few months. The Chancellor reiterated his commitment to his deficit reduction strategy. He insists that the recovery was always going to be choppy and that there is no need for a ‘Plan B’. The Labour opposition, and the Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls in particular, argue that the Government are going ‘too fast, too soon’ with their deficit reduction plan and are stifling demand in the economy as a result.
The latest of our Innovation Den’s took place yesterday and saw a total of 23 SME member companies pitching their ideas to three separate panels of representatives from central government, local government and large suppliers to the public sector. The number of follow- up appointments requested following the presentations totalled at around 30 which was hugely encouraging. (more…)
Given the significant shift in education policy since last year’s election, this year’s BETT conference was of particular interest as it was one of the first opportunities for industry and the education community to come together and reflect on the impact of these changes.
Despite leaving university just over three years ago, the show illustrated to me just how much has changed in terms of the technology that is now available to enhance learning. The changes since I was at school are even more dramatic as then we were only just starting to use the internet for research and using an overhead projector was about as advanced as it really got.
I spoke with a number of teachers about how they are using technology in their school and also their reaction to latest government policy. Some teachers expressed concern about the impact of closing Becta and were not convinced that the coalition is fully appreciative of the positive contribution that technology can play in education. In contrast, other teachers made clear that they were excited at the recent policy shift and argued that teachers will relish the absence of an overly prescriptive steer from the centre. It was interesting to hear from one teacher in particular who said that the debate around technology and education is too often shaped by what teachers want and not enough attention is paid to what students expect and what they value.