The State of Education | Yes, Prime Minister | BBC

look what happened to education in this country this is a question from a religious studies paper which do you prefer atom bombs or charity masses becoming politicized if it costs 5 billion pounds a year to maintain Britain's nuclear defenses and 75 pounds a year to feed a starving African child how many African children could be saved from starvation if the Ministry of Defense abandoned you clearly that's easy mum they'd spend it all on conventional weapons it's just a some five billion divided by 75 but the children aren't learning how to do the sons no indeed but the local education authorities might argue that they don't need to they all have pocket calculators if you all need to know how it's done no we were all taught basic arithmetic quickly where are we what's 3947 / 7300 widely depends on paper to do that I could do it when I left school but now you'd use a calculator that's not the point I mean look at Latin hardly anybody knows that that is temporary move tanto no set new timer in illis times change and we change with the times the CEATEC who says philosophers Menzies is okay if you kept your mouth shut we might have thought you were clever how about you Prime Minister no that's the translation no one would ever have thought so Humphrey was saying that about you go away Bernhard I can't believe it Humphrey you had a conventional strict academic upbringing are you denying the value of it well what's the use of it I can't even call a partisan conversation with the Prime Minister of Great Britain education in this country is a disaster we're supposed to be preparing children for a working life three-quarters of the time they're bored stiff well I should have thought that being bored stiff for three-quarters of the time was an excellent preparation for working life the school leaving age was raised to sixteen so they could learn more and they're learning less raise it to enable them to learn more we raised it to keep teenagers off the job market and hold down the unemployment figures there's nothing wrong with education in this country now I've caught snot Prime Minister it's a joke it's always been a joke and as long as you leave it in the hands of the local councillors it will remain a joke I mean half of them your enemies anyway and the other half of the sort of friends would make you prefer your enemies I'm saying that education will never get any better as long as it's subject all that tomfoolery in the town halls adding just imagine what would happen if you put defense in the hands of the local authorities yes give the local councils 100 million each and ask them to defend themselves we wouldn't have to worry about the Russians we'd have a civil war in three weeks

Channel: BBC Studios

Views: 1,869,899

Keywords: state of education yes prime minister, yes prime minister state of education, yes prime minister education, education yes prime minister, yes prime minister clip, yes prime minister highlight, yes prime minister show, yes prime minster funny moments, yes prime minister funny, bbc yes prime minister, yes prime minister bbc, bbc studios, bbc worldwide, bbc

Id: yeF_o1Ss1NQ

Length: 3min 3sec (183 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 29 2010

Reddit Comments

[u/mikes642]

I am not sure if this is just a poorly chosen title, but how does this represent what Gove is doing? Not trying to be aggressive, I just don't see the angle. Curriculum was national long before Gove was around, and if anything, with all the new academies being founded it is becoming progressively LESS cohesive. It's not the local council, it's just another group making their own decisions.

As a teacher, let me promise you that there are not very many good rationales for what Gove is doing. I am not saying EVERYTHING he is doing is terrible. But if I am honest, most of it is.

[u/[deleted]]

Thatcher's favourite TV program.

[u/samw11]

This episode was on tv yesterday. I did wonder if the timing was purposeful or coincidental.