NationStates Jolt Archive


Issue Idea: Comments Welcome

Gruenberg
26-09-2005, 21:04
Name: Four, um...seven?

Validity:
- Education funding > 0
- Political freedoms > 0

Description: Parents and teachers are uniting in shocked fury in the wake of tabloid revelations that the Education Minister is unable to count to ten.

[option]"Simply unacceptable," says opposition politician and published historian @@RANDONNAME@@. "How can we possibly encourage high academic standards in the face of such a poor example? I propose we set a minimum standard of degree-level education for all those seeking political office."
[effect]town councillors must be fluent in at least seven languages

[option]"Heads must roll!" screeches @@RANDONNAME@@, board-rubber brandishing leader of the @@NAME@@ Union of National Teachers. "This just goes to show we were right all along: leave teaching to the teachers. Get the government out of the classroom!"
[effect]teachers have been accused of imposing their own religious and political views on impressionable students

[option]Political advisor @@RANDONNAME@@ takes a different view. "Look, this is all really very silly: after all, I wouldn't want the Health Secretary performing surgery on me. We need to stop pandering to the whims of these radical loons, and face facts: this sort of thing has nothing to do with how effective our ministers are as legislators. But no one is ever going to be able to see that if unions continue to wield such power."
[effect]workers are routinely paid with small packets of peanuts

[option]"Er, er...it's all a misunderstanding...really," pleads @@RANDONNAME@@, the profusely-sweating official at the root of the controversy. "You can't fire me...the, er...the, what are they called? Children! The children need me. I'm sure if I just announced a pay rise here and gave out some new computers there, this whole fuss would just blow right over."
[effect]a recent act of parliament spelled the word 'dog' incorrectly
Czardas
27-09-2005, 02:46
Very good, but the third effect is kind of confusing. What do unions have anything to do with an inept education secretary?
Sirocco
27-09-2005, 07:54
We've already got an issue about a stupid populace.
Gruenberg
27-09-2005, 22:02
Yes, I know. I was trying to base it on the idea of whether ministers needed to be experts in their department. It came from a reminder of a time when the British Education Secretary was asked to multiply 7 and 8, and gave the wrong answer. Sorry that I didn't make it distinct enough.

EDIT: If I reworded it so that it was more clearly about government, rather than literacy levels (I hope the effects are ok, but the options are obviously not clear enough), would it count as sufficiently different, or has the whole topic area of 'education' been done to death?