Thursday, March 01, 2012

Fraudulent Applications and Catchment Areas

Nottinghamshire headmaster Rob Mc Donough is advising the Government on how to stop parents making fraudulent applications to get their children into better schools that they do not actually live in the catchment area for.

It is an excellent example of Darwinian selection. The more a parent cares about their offspring, the greater the lengths they will go to in order to make sure that they get into a decent school. The child of such parents is likely to be similarly keen and entrepreneurial. A school with a bit more vision would adopt a policy of only taking pupils whose parents they suspected of lying and cheating on their application.

Finally, RIP David Rathband.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Considering how teachers (I used to be one) are required to cheat in order for their pupils to be awarded as many "passes" as possible, I'd say you're right on the money there, Frank.

Brian, follower of Deornoth said...

There is another aspect of this effect at work;the more intelligent the pupil, the more the headmaster (sorry, teacher) will be 'helpful' in thinking of reasons why the catchment area criterion will be waived in 'this particular case'. After all, bright kids improve the school's league table positions, so the headmaster (sorry, teacher) will be more willing to bend the rules on their behalf.

The utter intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the state education system is becoming more and more evident daily.