Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Gordon Fiddles While Britain Burns!

The economy has gone tits up, unemployment rates are soaring, the NHS is in crisis, sinking under bureaucracy, as is the teaching profession and Northern Ireland looks like kicking off again. The Euro is likely to collapse causing chaos in Europe, but at least it would speed up our departure from the European Union. Not forgetting Islamist nutters taking potshots at our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So the government decides to tinker with even more statistics, feedback and reviewing of the NHS and the schools. Which will inevitably mean even more bureaucrats to monitor it. Do you think nurses should nurse? So do I, but the government wants them to become managers (bureaucrats) too:

It will consider how nurses could develop their skills as leaders and managers such as being given more freedom to commission and run their own services.


I can imagine the scenario. Poor old boy in hospital bed: "Nurse, nurse, I think I've just coughed up a lung". Old boy in next bed shouts: "It's no good they're all on a management awayday looking at ethnic and disabled recruitment levels". But he wouldn't be in there in reality because they will be refusing to treat smokers by then to finance more managers!

And people in business complain about bureaucracy. Tell you what try being a teacher and then moan about bureaucracy and red tape. Yet again I've been considering teaching but not now, having seen what is involved, more and more bureaucracy and politically correct posturing.

Tell you what Gordon, if the government just let teachers, health professionals and others just get on with their jobs, instead of constantly tinkering, we may then have a health service and education system to be proud of again.

Parents and patients don't want to fill in evaluation and monitioring forms every time they fart, they just want to be confident that their schools and hospitals do the job which their ever spiralling taxes pay for. The less government does the more chance of that actually happening.

1 comment:

Steve Allison said...

Hi Greg. I considered teaching a few years ago and even had a place on a highly respected teacher training course at a prestigious local university. However, I was put off by the attitudes I encountered. As a late entrant to teaching I would be working for heads of Departments and even Head Teachers younger than myself who had almost without exception followed the classic route of school pupil, university student, school teacher. Note the total lack of experience outside education. They of course had a vocation to teach, hence no need to experience anything outside academia, I would have lacked that dedication and hence been suspect. I would also have different ideas about management, organisation, motivation, etc and lack the necessary indoctrination, sorry I mean "training"

I am NOT saying all teachers were like this then, nor are all teachers like it now but it was a classic case of middle ranking teachers feeling threatened and reacting by circling the wagons. The lecturer on the PGCE as good as told me I wouldn't last at the chalk face because I wouldn't be able to stand by quiet when I saw what was happening in schools but the moment I spoke out it would be "He comes into school and after 5 minutes is telling teachers with 20 years experience what they are doing wrong. Who does he think he is!"