A Sense Of Boredom

It’s about 9.30 p.m. on Wednesday 9th June, and I’m sitting at my PC bored out my skull! The TV tonight is gawd awful. All channels, including Sky. There is nothing on that takes my fancy. Holby City or The Bill just doesn’t turn me on.

Spent the day marking students work, and filling in related forms and registers. I am always amazed at the amount of marking I generate. My Principal once asked me how much I do in a year, to which I replied ‘About 4 feet!’ It’s got even worse since then. At the minute I have 5 boxes and 4 bags of it. But fret not dear reader as I’m making progress. The attendant administration is almost finished, and I cross my fingers that I haven’t missed anyone out.

I once credited an apprentice with a half-module in Job Seeking Skills when I shouldn’t, and got a row from the then Depute Principal and my also now retired Head of Department. (Like he was going to Oxford or something!) There must be tens of thousands of errors and mistakes made on educational forms every year. The exponential increase in daft paperwork dramatically increases the probability of things going awry. And inevitably its the student who is affected in some way.

I’ve just had a brilliant idea.

Why don’t they issue us teachers with a hand held scanner? Even better make students wear electronic tags! A bit like a supermarket, when they’ve filled their trolley with accumulated assessments they pass thru the scanner and get their certificate from a till-like device at the door. EPOS – the Educational Point Of Sale!!

You could save millions a year. You wouldn’t need too many support staff who currently outnumber us teachers in my place 60: 40. Nor would you need monolithic exam authorities! Huge self-perpetuating bureaucracies could go at one fell swoop.

Wonder how that would go down in the corridors of power?