Putting a reference to himself on the spine is the least of problems with Michael Gove’s £370,000 vanity bibles, sent to every state-funded primary and secondary school in England. The book appears to have been distributed with no consideration of the needs of disabled students — including to special schools where visual impairments and dexterity problems render it unusable by pupils.
A source familiar with the situation told Scrapbook:
“This is a huge cock up. The small print means students with sight problems can’t read it, while the thin paper rules it out for many students with physical disabilities. Why didn’t they consult with special schools?”
While fielding criticism about the appropriateness of distributing the bibles to religiously diverse English schools, Gove’s team seemed to forget about disabled students. The references to a raft of third-party online learning materials provided to accompany the book make no reference to accessibility or special educational needs.
In his covering letter to headteachers, Gove wrote:
“I believe it is important that all pupils … should appreciate this icon, and its impact on our language and democracy.”
Except if you’re blind, it seems.
4 Comments
Meh.
It was a foolish idea anyway.
The idea that many students in the non-special needs schools will actually get to even see this single bible in their school is laughable for me.
So talking of not accommodating special needs is like saying the stupid project should have spent more money. It’s a non-starter of an argument for me, as the copies sent out had no real educational value anyway…..
silly, silly vanity project, should be just laughed at as a whole, not dissected.
what else can you expect from a self-satisfied jumped up little hitler?
Should have sent them Dawkins instead
Firstly, a disclaimer; I am an Atheist ( so don’t go accusing me of trying to foist my religion on others).
The premise behind the idea is excellent. You simply cannot appreciate most of Western philosophy/literature without at least having a cursory knowledge of the King James Bible. It’s a travesty that most people seem to be completely ignorant of it’s contents.
Unfortunately I don’t see how sending a SINGLE bible to every school in the country will help matters. Every single child in the country should be given a Bible ( every child in my year group back in primary school got one — it wasn’t a religious school). And not accommodating the blind isn’t going to help matters either. This programme should be aggressively expanded so that every child — disabled or otherwise — can experience such an important piece of not only our own, British, heritage but also Western heritage too.