Reading texts
1. A very British business
Some lessons from the success of Britain’s elite private schools
Subject: British Private schools
Examples: Eton, Winchester, Harrow, fettes
Increased their fees threefold since 1980 -> still people beating at their doors
Become global -> >1/3 is foreign + campuses in Bangkok, Singapore, Beijing, Kazakhstan, …
Secret of success: provide first-class academic education
Ticket to the best universities
Exam results far outstrip those of state schools
1944: Britain introduced universal, free secondary schooling
Will parents no longer pay high fees for elite schools?
Private schools seemed like vestiges of snobbery and privilege (extinction)
First respond: raising their standards
Government: took competition away
Forced grammar schools to become mixed-ability “comprehensives”
Publication of league tables of schools’ exam results -> had to perform
Reaction schools: weeding out their weak teachers
Turnaround dramatically in areas
- PS once disparaged science as ‘stinks and bangs’
o Now science powerhouses
- Failed to lift girls’ aspirations the way they did boys’
o Now 92% (then 9%)
PS’ revival: 3 management lessons:
- Tradition & innovation need not to be mutually exclusive
- Become slick at exploiting their famous old boys to market themselves
- Constantly reinventing themselves
Britain has no monopoly in institutional reinvention: America’s ivy league from bastions of WASP
privilege to champions of multiculturalism
Second lesson: competition with independent standard-setting and performance-measurement can
work wonders
PV: snob appeal
League tables -> prove that they delivere results
Third insight: insiders make the best revolutionaries
Headmasters spent most of their lives inside PS
,PS have 2 advantages:
- Teach in the world’s de facto business language
- Many are within striking distance of London (world’s great global cities)
Snob appeal
Super-rich will only pay for snobbery if it is packed with academic results
Remarkable reinvention & revival
PV will become victims of their own success
Raised their fees
How can they continue to justify their charitable status and its accompanying tax breaks?
Can they still clam to offer a traditional british education when their classes are increasingly
stuffed with offspring of Russian oligarchs and Asian crony capitalists
, 2. Reuters reporters jailed for seven years in
Myanmar
The Guardian – Jamie Fullerton & Jacobb Goldberg
Who: two Reuters reporters (reuters = international news organization)
What: arrested in Myanmar -while investigating a massacre of Rohingya muslims-
Are found guilty of breaching the country’s secrets act
7 years prison
Wa Lone (32)
Kyaw soe oo (28)
Judge Ye Lwin: ‘they tried to get their hands on secret documents…’
Press freedom advocates
UN, EU, Canada, US & Australia colled for the men to be acquitted
Massacre of Rohingya: death of 10 Rohingyaat the hands of soldiers and buddhist villagers in Inn Din
2 were invited by officers to dinner <-> prosecutors
Journalists 2 stole the documents
Were framed by the police
Gave them the documents during dinner
Targeted for their reporting
Held in bad conditions: deprived of sleep, forced to kneel for hours, had a black hood placed over his
head
Many people condemned by human rights acitivist, The Un, Us & Britain
Lots of Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh
Outrage Strong feeling of insult, injury
Prompted To move to action, delivered
Sobbing A convulsive watching of the breath in weeping
Condemned Indicate strong disapproval of
Editor-in-chief Hoofdredacteur
Advocates To speak in favor of , comes first
Te be acquitted To get released, vrijkomen
At he hands of In handen van
Rohingya Etnische groep, moedertaal, moslim in
myanmar
Were detained Were Held, keep under restraint
Prosecutor Person who complains
deprived A lack of a necessitie, beroofd van
, Cross-examination Kruisverhoor,
Draconian Unusually cruel, referse to the person draco
Deeply troubling Zeer verontrustend
outrageous Grossly offensive
A low Een dieptepunt,
Backsliding To relapse in bad habits
Scrutiny Searching examination, investigation
Damning Vernietigend
De-facto In reality
Massacre Brutally killing many people
Breaching To break a (law)
Verdict A decision in a (criminal) case
Prosecution noun, taking legal action against someone
Cross-examination The other party asks the witness questions in a
court of law
Testify Give evidence as a witness in a court of law
Conviction A judge finds someone guilty
Ethnic cleansing The mass killing of members of one ethnic
group
1. A very British business
Some lessons from the success of Britain’s elite private schools
Subject: British Private schools
Examples: Eton, Winchester, Harrow, fettes
Increased their fees threefold since 1980 -> still people beating at their doors
Become global -> >1/3 is foreign + campuses in Bangkok, Singapore, Beijing, Kazakhstan, …
Secret of success: provide first-class academic education
Ticket to the best universities
Exam results far outstrip those of state schools
1944: Britain introduced universal, free secondary schooling
Will parents no longer pay high fees for elite schools?
Private schools seemed like vestiges of snobbery and privilege (extinction)
First respond: raising their standards
Government: took competition away
Forced grammar schools to become mixed-ability “comprehensives”
Publication of league tables of schools’ exam results -> had to perform
Reaction schools: weeding out their weak teachers
Turnaround dramatically in areas
- PS once disparaged science as ‘stinks and bangs’
o Now science powerhouses
- Failed to lift girls’ aspirations the way they did boys’
o Now 92% (then 9%)
PS’ revival: 3 management lessons:
- Tradition & innovation need not to be mutually exclusive
- Become slick at exploiting their famous old boys to market themselves
- Constantly reinventing themselves
Britain has no monopoly in institutional reinvention: America’s ivy league from bastions of WASP
privilege to champions of multiculturalism
Second lesson: competition with independent standard-setting and performance-measurement can
work wonders
PV: snob appeal
League tables -> prove that they delivere results
Third insight: insiders make the best revolutionaries
Headmasters spent most of their lives inside PS
,PS have 2 advantages:
- Teach in the world’s de facto business language
- Many are within striking distance of London (world’s great global cities)
Snob appeal
Super-rich will only pay for snobbery if it is packed with academic results
Remarkable reinvention & revival
PV will become victims of their own success
Raised their fees
How can they continue to justify their charitable status and its accompanying tax breaks?
Can they still clam to offer a traditional british education when their classes are increasingly
stuffed with offspring of Russian oligarchs and Asian crony capitalists
, 2. Reuters reporters jailed for seven years in
Myanmar
The Guardian – Jamie Fullerton & Jacobb Goldberg
Who: two Reuters reporters (reuters = international news organization)
What: arrested in Myanmar -while investigating a massacre of Rohingya muslims-
Are found guilty of breaching the country’s secrets act
7 years prison
Wa Lone (32)
Kyaw soe oo (28)
Judge Ye Lwin: ‘they tried to get their hands on secret documents…’
Press freedom advocates
UN, EU, Canada, US & Australia colled for the men to be acquitted
Massacre of Rohingya: death of 10 Rohingyaat the hands of soldiers and buddhist villagers in Inn Din
2 were invited by officers to dinner <-> prosecutors
Journalists 2 stole the documents
Were framed by the police
Gave them the documents during dinner
Targeted for their reporting
Held in bad conditions: deprived of sleep, forced to kneel for hours, had a black hood placed over his
head
Many people condemned by human rights acitivist, The Un, Us & Britain
Lots of Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh
Outrage Strong feeling of insult, injury
Prompted To move to action, delivered
Sobbing A convulsive watching of the breath in weeping
Condemned Indicate strong disapproval of
Editor-in-chief Hoofdredacteur
Advocates To speak in favor of , comes first
Te be acquitted To get released, vrijkomen
At he hands of In handen van
Rohingya Etnische groep, moedertaal, moslim in
myanmar
Were detained Were Held, keep under restraint
Prosecutor Person who complains
deprived A lack of a necessitie, beroofd van
, Cross-examination Kruisverhoor,
Draconian Unusually cruel, referse to the person draco
Deeply troubling Zeer verontrustend
outrageous Grossly offensive
A low Een dieptepunt,
Backsliding To relapse in bad habits
Scrutiny Searching examination, investigation
Damning Vernietigend
De-facto In reality
Massacre Brutally killing many people
Breaching To break a (law)
Verdict A decision in a (criminal) case
Prosecution noun, taking legal action against someone
Cross-examination The other party asks the witness questions in a
court of law
Testify Give evidence as a witness in a court of law
Conviction A judge finds someone guilty
Ethnic cleansing The mass killing of members of one ethnic
group
