Schools this time.
Headteachers condemned “devastating” spending cuts today after the Government axed plans to rebuild 170 run-down secondaries in London.
Teachers warned that children would be left in “Dickensian” conditions in crumbling classrooms while fears grew that the construction industry would also be devastated by the cuts.
Two pleas used there. Dickensian and the Construction Industry.
Now your Blog Host had to put up with far worse when he went to school.
Our sleeping quarters were onboard a rusting hulk moored in the middle of a river. The roof beneath which we slept was made of corrugated tin with no insulation and wasn't particularly waterproof.
Pic: HMS Gannet as restored in Chatham Dockyard
To get to breakfast and the school buildings we had to row ashore in a leaky old boat. If it rained, tough titty.
And believe it or not my parents paid for me to live in conditions that would have your average member of the prison population, in full scale riot.
Sir William Atkinson, head of Phoenix High School in Shepherd's Bush, said: “It is devastating news.” He added that children faced an unfair, “two-speed” education system with some pupils in dazzling new facilities while others were condemned to “antiquated, inadequate buildings”.
It's not the quality of the bricks and mortar that count. It's the standard of teaching and discipline that's important. And that seems to be sadly lacking these days.
Hear, hear, said pretty much the same over at mine
ReplyDeleteMakes you wonder if these 'Dickensian conditions' existed in 1997, or 1998. If so, it's odd, don't you think, that nobody did anything about repair or renovation until the few months before a general election.
ReplyDeleteIt's all the fault of the Tories.......
ReplyDeleteDid you bash your shins on the steps much? I walked round the Gannet in spring and caught mine on the steep steel steps, it hurt for days.
ReplyDeleteBack on topic, while most of my schooling was done in quite a nice old building, the lessons in the leaky temporary classrooms were always the best.