Luminiferous Æther

As if English education hadn’t been dumbed down enough, the government has awarded McDonald’s exam board status, meaning that the company can now start giving A-levels to students. For the non-English readers, A-levels are the school exams that children take at age 18. From the government’s perspective, McDonald’s is now on the same academic level as Cambridge. Starting soon, students will have to decide if they want to take A-levels in physics, chemistry, biology, maths, history, art or burger management.

The prime minister, Gordon Brown, claims this is not further evidence of falling standards but is an academically rigorous addition to the curriculum. Brown said: “You have got to do a pretty intensive course to get that [McDonald’s] qualification. It’s not that standards are going to fall. It’s going to be a tough course. Once you’ve got that qualification you can go anywhere.”

Amusingly Brown had just returned from China and India. Some of the 16-year-old students that I teach also came back from India on a trip to visit and help with poor schools there. The main thing that struck my students was how much tougher the classes were and how much more the Indian children knew — and they were visiting primary schools. That’s right, English secondary students from a good school found the Indian primary schools to be a challenge. My students were supposed to help teach the Indian kids, but in the immortal words of one girl: “They thought we were really stupid.”

[Click here for the BBC on the story]

[Click here for the Guardian covering Brown’s response]

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Header photograph by iboy_daniel

The ability of people to be needless jerks constantly surprises me. According to an article in the Telegraph, insulting and abusive callers are inflicting so much stress on Indian call center workers that they are making them sick.

From the article:

“At first, I thought I’d get used to it, but it’s been a year now and it’s not getting easier,” she [A call center worker] said.

Miss Aggarwal, an English graduate, said she planned to quit, tired of wishing customers a good morning only to hear: “Oh, I’m through to India am I? Put me through to someone who can understand English, you fucking cow.”

Anbumani Ramadoss, the health minister, has promised to introduce a policy specifically for the call centre industry.

So next time you’re put through to India, be nice and say ‘thank you’.

[Click here for the Telegraph article ‘Insulting British callers make operators sick’]

P.S. For a small insight into what call center work is like, I recommend 21 Dog Years, by Mike Daisy)

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Header photograph by babasteve