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War of words
RUTH Kelly has received a lot of stick for her decision to send her child to a private school.
That champion of state education, Fiona Millar, has surprisingly joined in the fray, saying the cabinet minister should resign. In a column in The Guardian on Monday, she points out that many questions remain to be answered. How severe is the child’s disability of dyslexia? Has he been statemented by the local authority? Did her local authority let her down? Fiona Millar believes Ruth Kelly should have resigned and started a debate about the provision for children with special needs in the state sector.
Not all that long ago, schools in Camden had a head-in-the-sand approach to dyslexia.
Some headteachers didn’t think it was scientifically proven; that it was a specific mental condition. Others simply didn’t have the specially-trained teachers to provide special support for dyslexic children.
In one Holborn school, parents had to make strenuous efforts before they were given permission to take their children out of school during the day to receive special private tutoring by dyslexia specialists.
It is easy for egalitarians to harangue Ruth Kelly for being a hypocrite in sending her child to a private school, but sympathy should go to a parent who has to cope with a disabled child.
Depending on the severity of dyslexia in Ruth Kelly’s child, it may have been possible for her to have arranged special private tutoring in the evenings and even weekends to offset the lack of provision at her local authority school, which is often the case. The main lesson to be learned from this row is that the government needs to revolutionise its provision for children with special needs.
Victory for apathy
WE’RE back again to ‘hoorah, hoorah!’ politics again. Last night (Wednesday) a vote was pummelled through in the council chamber which will result in poorer services for the people of Camden . In particular, the invaluable services provided by the Camden Law Centre are at risk of being savaged.
Only a third of the electorate bothered to vote in the last local elections, and many of them no doubt hoped politics at last would begin to get better in Camden. But once again, ill-conceived cuts are being railroaded through. Lessons have not been learned by the new rulers. In this game there is only one victor: Apathy, apathy and yet more apathy.
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