In his speech at last year’s Labour party conference the Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that individualised learning would be introduced in schools. But what is individualised learning? (TES, Friday magazine, March 26).
Did it mean that some pupils would be given individual help with literacy and numeracy? I wrote to the Department for Education and Skills for clarification and was informed that I (and presumably Mr Blair) had got the terminology wrong.
The education “does not mean one-to-one tuition”. It was personalised learning, not individualised learning.
Language is a slippery phenomenon, especially when it raises the spectre of mushrooming public expenditure. Here’s betting that individualised learning will be banished from the lexicon of future conference speeches.
Ivor Morgan 26 May Crescent Lincoln
