Stamp out edubabble 2

Bill Rammell's article (Opinion, December 22/29) was well timed, coming as it did not long before David Wilson's opinion article.

The former anticipates "robust" and "quality", even getting them side by side and adding "threshold". There are then two additional "qualities" and some "good practice".

Rammell then notches up much stunted vocabulary overlooked by Wilson:

"focus" (with split infinitive); "target" (but towards something?); "access"; "deliver"; "positive"; "inform"; "support"; "pathfinders"; "ease"; "provision". Rammell also gets in some tired old imperatives: "have to", "has to be", "need to", and a killing "must move to ensure".

Wilson is pessimistic, but Rammell stresses "success" five times, and these are adequately elaborated within the context of "business" (three times), "the economy" (twice), "employers" (twice), "demand-led mechanism" and "market".

Verdict? No real contest. Wilson works hard, but Rammell is obviously a natural edubabbler.

Ken Regelous
Kilgetty Pembrokeshire