Connect with us

Published

on

The government continues to “pledge significant packages of investment” to help pupils catch up on missed learning due to the pandemic, Gavin Williamson has claimed.

The education secretary’s comments come after the prime minister’s catch-up tsar Sir Kevan Collins last week resigned, claiming the government failed to provide enough money to fund a proper schools recovery plan.

Sky News understands the proposal put to the Treasury to help schools recover from lost learning during the COVID crisis was worth around £15bn, with 100 extra hours of teaching per pupil.

A £1.4bn package was unveiled by ministers last Wednesday, with the plans denounced as a “damp squib” by unions.

Sir Kevan Collins. Pic: PA/House of Commons
Image:
Sir Kevan Collins quit last week as the PM’s catch-up tsar. Pic: PA/House of Commons

Mr Williamson said on Monday that the total recovery package is now worth more than £3bn, including £1bn that will be spent on tutoring courses particularly for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

He claimed the fund would help close the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers.

In the Commons, the education secretary promised a “tutoring revolution” that would result in six million 15-hour tutoring courses for schoolchildren and two million 15-hour courses for 16 to 19-year-olds who need additional support to catch up.

More from Politics

And he said year 13 pupils would have the option for repeating their final year “where this is appropriate”.

He claimed the evidence showed one course of high-quality tutoring had been proven to boost attainment by three to five months so additional tutoring will be “vital” for young people in recovering the teaching hours lost over the past year.

He told MPs: “Helping our children recover from the impact of the pandemic is an absolute priority. Pupils, parents and staff have all experienced disruption and we know that continuous actions are required to help recover lost
learning.”

He said 250,000 children would receive tutoring this year who would not have had access to it previously, and more than 500,000 would be able to attend summer schools.

Mr Williamson continued “The evidence we have shows that disadvantaged children and those who live in areas that have been particularly hard hit by high COVID rates such as the North East of England and Yorkshire are among those whose learning is most likely to have been affected.

“We have always been clear and will continue to take the action that is required. This is why we continue to pledge significant packages of investment and targeted intervention to help them make up on their lost learning.”

Mr Williamson also thanked Sir Kevan following his departure for “his contribution to these efforts”.

Subscribe to the All Out Politics podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker

Labour’s shadow education secretary, Kate Green, told the Commons: “The government failed children and young people.

“They were promised that their education was the prime minister’s number one priority but they’ve been betrayed by a secretary of state who has let them down once again, and by a prime minister who won’t lift a finger for them when it comes to a row with the chancellor about prioritising the investment needed in their future.

“I was frankly embarrassed to hear the Secretary of State proclaim that the funding announced last week would deliver a revolution – from what his government announced it’ll amount to just £50 per pupil for the next three years compared to £1,600 in the USA, £2,500 in the Netherlands.”

Mr Williamson claimed Labour had opposed nearly all of the government’s education reforms, adding that the opposition would “merely parrot what the union paymasters ask it to do”.

Continue Reading

Politics

5 highlights of Sam Bankman-Fried’s first day of trial

Published

on

By

5 highlights of Sam Bankman-Fried’s first day of trial

The high-profile trial of former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried kicked off on Oct. 3 with plenty of activity both inside and outside of the cramped Manhattan courtroom.

Journalists, crypto influencers and other gawkers reportedly gathered in a media overflow room to take notes on the day’s events. Here are some of the most colorful observations about the day.

Noticeably leaner, signature haircut gone

The defendant, Bankman-Fried, appeared noticeably leaner, according to multiple reports.

Flanked by five defense lawyers, he was dressed in a navy suit that seemed bigger on him in previous appearances, and his signature unkempt curly locks were subbed for a shorter hairstyle.

Unchained Crypto’s Laura Shin noted that Bankman-Fried was noticeably “less jittery than normal.”

“I did not see him shake his leg at all,” she said in an Oct. 3 podcast.

The only time he spoke was to say “yes” to the judge and occasionally look at the jurors. Other times, he conferred with his lawyers or was seen typing and scrolling on his air-gapped laptop.

SBF has spent the past seven weeks or so locked up at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center. When his lawyers unsuccessfully argued for his release, they claimed that he was subsisting on “bread and water” and lacking vegan meal options.

Crypto influencer Tiffany Fong said, “He kind of looks more criminal now.”

Journalists, influencers and skeptics come to “crypto prom”

The first day of the trial was described as feeling like “the first day of school,” according to some journalists in attendance.

“I’ve never seen the courthouse like this,” remarked an unnamed member of the press, according to The Slate.

“While waiting to access the media overflow room, I spotted practically anyone and everyone who’s had something to say about decentralized currency over the last few years,” said The Slates’ Nitish Pahwa.

He described it as a “crypto prom” crammed with a hodgepodge of paid media participants, crypto influencers, obsessives, skeptics and more.

Cointelegraph reporter Ana Paula Pereira is also in attendance and will give daily updates on the most significant developments throughout the trial.

Jurors get whittled down, and some share sad crypto stories

Judge Lewis B. Kaplan told the burgeoning crowd of potential jurors: “You are to do no research. You are not to read press coverage”; however, he lightened up when it came to questioning the crowd, reported Cointelegraph.

Potential jurors were asked if they had prior knowledge about FTX and Alameda, with one saying they learned about it from The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, according to a partial transcript from Inner City Press.

One juror said they worked with a company that invested in (and lost money on) FTX and Alameda. Another potential juror said:

“I invested in crypto. I lost money.”

One juror shared that he wasn’t sure if he could be unbiased with crypto: “I’ve felt negatively about it since I learned about it.” He was later dismissed from the pool of potential jurors.

Another juror even asked the judge whether a death sentence could be imposed for Bankman-Fried, to which the judge answered:

“We’ll get to it in a minute or two, and my answer will have to suffice. Anyone unwilling to accept that punishment is up to the court? No one.”

At the end of the session, Judge Kaplan said, “We now have a sufficient group of qualified jurors, 50.” He added that 18 people will be selected in total, 12 of whom will be jurors with six alternates.

He added that on the next day (Oct. 4), a microphone will be passed around for each juror to speak for a minute. “Then the lawyers will confer, and the final selection will be made,” he concluded.

Witnesses for the prosecution

An assistant U.S. attorney read out a list of potential witnesses for the prosecution. This included some expected names, such as former company executives Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, Nishad Singh, Ryne Miller and Constance Wang; family members Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried; and even Anthony Scaramucci.

Several institutions were also listed, including Jane Street Capital, Sequoia Capital, BlockFi, Genesis, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Binance, Nexo, Guarding Against Pandemics (the nonprofit of SBF’s brother) and Voyager Digital.

Six-week trial expected

Judge Kaplan said that the trial was expected to take about six weeks, but he also noted that it could be over in a much shorter time.

Related: What has Sam Bankman-Fried been up to in jail?

However, by the end of the day, he had not succeeded in finalizing the jury. Kaplan predicted that this would be completed by the morning of Oct. 4, after which both sides are expected to give opening arguments totaling around 90 minutes.

Magazine: Can you trust crypto exchanges after the collapse of FTX?