Boarding Bullies?

The wonderfully named Commission for Social Care Inspection have sent round a number of worthies to inspect some of the oldest educational establishments in the land to see if anti-social behaviour is going on. Well, they found some odd practices indeed, according to John Clare, of the Daily Telegraph! Naturally, these were given a "spread" in last Saturday's paper which has caused both sadness and curiosity at the same time. Sadness at the apparent bias of the editing of Clare and curiosity concerning the practices!

Having attended one of the "named" schools I find it hard to relate to the descriptions of the "practices". Could it be that Clare has a schoolboy tendency to embellish the truth? Or have the Inspectors been entranced by the tales of the pupils, eager to elaborate on centuries of traditional japes, pranks, and escapades?

The concerning matter here though is that this CSCI is another quango keeping itself going on charging "regulatory fees" for being allowed to enter premises almost at will. Surely a far better way to deal with abuses in schools, care homes, and with the elderly, is to up the criminal sentences that abusers get. I do not think that every establishment falling under the CSCI's beady eyes is suspect, but the present burgeoning quango system tars everyone with the same brush. For the CSCI its all a nice little earner.

Anyone concerned about life in a boarding school should take comfort from British academic Roger Cooper, who was let out of jail in Iran in 1991, after being incarcerated on trumped up spying charges. He said in a memorable quotation to the assembled hacks, "Anyone who has been to an English public school can do 5 years in an Iranian prison." Just about sums it all up, CSCI!

http://www.csci.org.uk/information_for_service_providers/fees/default.htm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/06/18/nflash18.xml

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