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Monday, December 15, 2008

Eleven Plus Change of Rules

Three couples are competing for two places in the final.

A number of couples have been eliminated week by week by a combination of the public vote and the judges.

Earlier on in the series one couple had to drop out because they might have won. It seems that the public liked them very much but the judges thought that the male dancer was not a very good.

Last Saturday night the remaining three couple danced their hearts out. Their bodies twisted and gyrated. There were smiles and set faces. There were the usual hugs and kisses.

Two couples were given equal scores by the judges. One couple was clearly in third place.

The public were then given their chance to vote. The public paid good money to vote for their favourites.

Ten minutes before the end of the program there was a brief announcement. All three couples had passed on the final stage. All votes would be carried over until the next week. Everyone had passed.

THE RULES WERE CHANGED.

It seems that because one couple’s marks were so low, there was no chance of them gaining enough marks to pass. The judges’ marks were:

B + L = 3
L + V = 3
T + C = 1

So even if the public had voted for T + C they still could not have earned enough points to go through to the final.

Just imagine how we would feel if our eleven plus children were subjected to the same rules. Two children pass the eleven plus. There are two places. Some one in authority thinks that it is not fair that the third child can not win a place. The rules are changed. All three children have to take the examination again. The appeal board sits to hear the cases.

The children do their best yet again. This time there could be a different outcome to the eleven plus results because the content of the examination could change. (The dancers, for example, may need change their routines.)

Child 1 Passes first time and passes second time

Child 2 Passes first time and fails second time

Child 3 fails first time but passes second time.

The appeal board add up all the marks from the two examinations. Child 1 and Child 3 are offered places. Child 2, who passed first time, is not offered a place.

The appeal board say an urgent review is necessary.

The public are allowed their say. (Look at the forums on the BBC Strictly web site.)

The candidate who was really popular early on (John S.) comes back to dance again – he wins all the votes.

He wins. Someone decides to change the rules gain. The producer resigns. The show is scrapped.

The eleven plus continues because it is so popular with a certain group of parents.

What happens to Child 2 who passed the first time? She is offered compensation from the BBC. The money for the compensation comes from the licence payers – who are the watching public.

Child 2 lands up at a top independent school. She goes on to gain top A level results and a first class honours degrees from Cambridge. In time she become a surgeon and operates on the producer of the program – who all those years ago changed the rules.

It is all a fantasy isn’t it?

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