Latest news with #BritishHistory
Telegraph
26-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Firm behind UK citizenship tests owned by company embroiled in ‘cheating scandal'
British citizenship tests will be administered by a company whose new owners were previously embroiled in a cheating scandal, The Telegraph can reveal. PSI Services, a newly acquired subsidiary of New Jersey-based Educational Testing Services (ETS), was awarded the £19.8 million three-year contract last month. ETS previously held the contract for providing English language tests for immigration purposes until cheating allegations more than a decade ago compelled the Home Office to sever ties with the provider. The US assessment firm has now returned to immigration testing by purchasing PSI Services, which has been given responsibility for creating and rolling out the Life in the UK knowledge test for those seeking to become British citizens. A spokesman for ETS said that despite the purchase, PSI was 'operating as a separate entity'. The test is currently made up of 24 multiple choice questions aimed at proving the applicant has sufficient knowledge of British values, history and laws. It costs £50, takes 45 minutes and has a 75 per cent pass mark, asking questions such as: 'Who was the King of England at the time of the Norman invasion in 1066?' The Home Office has determined the bounds of required knowledge, which ranges from early British history and religion to politics, arts and culture. Setting out its specifications, the Government also recommended that questions should be asked on more taboo topics such as 'domestic violence', 'forced marriage', 'female genital mutilation', 'ethnic diversity', 'the slave trade' and 'conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq'. ETS, the world's largest private provider of testing and assessments, bought PSI Services in January 2024. Claims of systemic cheating The company held the licence to carry out the UK's secure English language testing for immigration purposes until it was alleged that its English language tests had been undermined by allegations of systemic cheating. An undercover BBC investigation in 2014 claimed tests were being sat by 'proxy' test takers on behalf of actual candidates and some invigilators were reading out answers. It was later claimed that some ETS staff had informed the Home Office of significant evidence of organised cheating almost two years before it was exposed, as they voiced concern that efforts to close some 'fraudulent' test centres were being blocked by managers worried that test fee income would fall. Asked by the Home Office to mark its own homework, the testing giant allegedly found that of around 58,000 people who sat the test between 2011 and 2015, some 58 per cent had used deception while another 39 per cent were deemed questionable. ETS's allegations prompted the Government to arbitrarily cancel 36,000 student visas and deport more than 2,500 people, with many since contesting the US company's findings. In the wake of the scandal, the Home Office cut ties with ETS, saying the contract had ended and would not be extended, and ETS closed its UK subsidiary. Wes Streeting, now the Health Secretary, told Parliament in 2018 that ETS was 'the grubby contractor at the centre of this scandal' and had 'serious questions to answer about their conduct in all this'. Stephen Timms, a Labour MP, said: 'Clearly, ETS was a discredited witness and yet the Home Office relied on them totally.' At the time, a spokesman for ETS told the BBC: 'ETS does everything it can to detect and prevent rare instances of dishonest test administrators or test takers.' In 2019 the company confirmed it had taken prompt action when it was made aware of serious allegations about UK tests in 2014. It said these were conducted by third-party contractors and overseen by its UK office. A spokesman said: 'ETS shared our methodology and findings with the UK Home Office but did not make any recommendations in relation to the same nor was ETS involved in determining how such information was utilised by the Home Office in its subsequent actions.' ETS added that it would continue to improve test security. Last year, Reed in Partnership was also handed a three year contract with option to extend to develop and deliver a test of knowledge of Life in the UK. Asked how both Reed in Partnership and PSI Services would be sharing the responsibilities for creating and running the service, the Home Office declined to comment. PSI Services is joining the immigration testing fold at a time when trust in citizenship testing has been rocked by further incidents of individual fraud. 'Complete disregard for UK immigration laws' In February, a 42-year-old woman from Kent was arrested on suspicion of wearing disguises to fraudulently sit the Life in the UK test on behalf of at least 12 people across multiple test centres. Chris Foster, the Home Office's criminal and financial investigation lead for London, said: 'This individual went to extreme lengths, using wigs and disguises to impersonate others and cheat the immigration system, showing a complete disregard for UK safety and immigration laws. 'There are 30 test centres around the UK and hundreds of thousands of people throughout the course of the year who sit the Life in the UK test and many are doing it legitimately.' The arrest came soon after Josephine Maurice, 61, from Enfield, admitted using wigs to fraudulently take the Life in the UK test on behalf of 13 people between June 2022 and August 2023. A spokesman for ETS said: 'PSI is a wholly owned subsidiary of ETS, operating as a separate entity. 'Under the terms of the contract between PSI and the Home Office, PSI retains full responsibility for the delivery of the Life in the UK Test on behalf of the Home Office. 'While PSI is now under ETS ownership, it functions with autonomy in service execution for this contract.'
Daily Mail
24-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
The end of Rachel Reeves: Furious Labour insiders tell me there's 'blood in the water', she's about to hike taxes AGAIN and reveal her pathetic new tactic: DAN HODGES
They were the words that destroyed John Major 's premiership and government, consigned the Tory Party to decades in the political wilderness and changed the course of British history. With sterling facing mounting pressure within the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, the Prime Minister rose to his feet at the Forte Crest Hotel in Glasgow to address the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).
The Sun
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
UK is turning into place we don't recognise… migrant boat disrupting Dunkirk tribute tells you all you need to know
IF you ever wanted a powerful symbol of what is wrong with Britain and its ruling class, then take a look at what happened in the Channel this week. Hoping to mark the 85th anniversary of Operation Dynamo — the evacuation of our brave troops from Dunkirk in World War Two — a flotilla of more than 60 'Little Ships' set off from Ramsgate, Kent. 6 6 6 But their 45-mile trip to France was disrupted when Border Force and the French navy demanded the boats make way for a dinghy bringing illegal immigrants to our shores, perhaps including terrorists among them. What on earth would our ancestors have made of this, I wonder? An attempt to mark our shared identity, history and collective sacrifice being disrupted by people from distant nations who are breaking our laws? While nobody in Westminster has yet said anything about this incident, I think it perfectly symbolises a major dividing line in our country. A line between those who cling to the things that once defined a country they both recognise and love, and those who are seeking to radically transform this country into something that most British and English people no longer recognise at all. If you think I'm taking things a bit far, then I'd urge you to consider two points. First, the reality of what is now unfolding in the English Channel. 4,500 boats — equivalent to filling an entire town almost the size of Luton. And, astonishingly, one data analyst this week predicted that nearly 46,000 illegal migrants will cross this year, smashing all records to date. But what we also learned this week, thanks to new figures released by the Office for National Statistics, is that our country and its population are being transformed much more rapidly and profoundly by legal immigration. 'Drop' in migrant numbers is nothing to celebrate... there are still 1,180 people arriving in the UK every DAY While Keir Starmer and Labour will try to distract you in the days ahead by pointing to the fact the overall rate of net migration into Britain last year fell sharply, to 431,000, meaning nearly half a million more people arrived than left, just look at the bigger picture. For a start, who voted for adding a city the size of Bristol to our country every year? Seriously, who voted for a level of net migration that is still huge by historical standards — 80 per cent higher than the yearly average during the 2010s and seven times higher than the level of the 1990s, before Tony Blair and New Labour forced us into this mass immigration experiment. When millions of people voted for Brexit, which many saw as an attempt to lower immigration, did they think that nearly a decade on from that vote the net migration figure in this country would be 100,000 higher than it was at the time of the referendum? As a result of these mind-boggling trends, today, one in every 25 people in this country arrived in the last four years, according to the Spectator magazine. Let me say that again. One in every 25 people arrived in the last four years. While Keir Starmer was recently criticised by the Left for suggesting we are 'at risk' of becoming an ' island of strangers ', I think he was too soft. We are already an island of strangers. How is it possible, you might ask, to maintain and unify a population that is undergoing this scale of rapid demographic change and in which millions of people only arrived in the last few years and so have no roots in our long identity, history and culture? 6 6 Furthermore, while the Labour Party wax lyrical about 'regaining control', can I ask them another simple question? If net migration was close to half a million people last year while at the same time our leaders built only 218,000 homes in England, then how on earth will we ever solve our housing crisis, bringing down the soaring cost of homes and rent for hardworking Brits? Between 2013 and 2024, according to the policy wonks at the Centre for Policy Studies, the 'housing deficit' in this country, meaning the number of homes we need, surged by 1.7million and immigration accounted for close to 1.6million, or 94 per cent, of this total. The message is crystal clear, even if nobody in Westminster will be honest with you about it. You can have available and affordable housing for the hardworking, tax-paying British people, or you can have mass uncontrolled immigration. You cannot have both. And look, too, at how these insane numbers are transforming our economy. In the aftermath of the vote for Brexit, countless politicians told you that we would switch to a policy of lower but 'high skill' immigration — that we would attract the best of the best. 'ISLAND OF STRANGERS' But now look into the detail of those numbers, released this week. Here's just one bonkers statistic. Of the nearly 3.6million migrants from outside Europe who arrived in Britain, since 2021, just 16 per cent of them came on work visas. Think about that. Once you exclude students, relatives and asylum seekers, only around one in eight of the millions of people who have flooded into our country came primarily to work. I'm not an economist but I would bet my house that this is one very big reason why our economy is now in the toilet, with low rates of growth and dismal levels of productivity. We should be attracting people who want to work, not providing a safety net for people who are taking more out of our economy than they are putting in. And, lastly, look at how all this is transforming our culture and identity, leaving the country unrecognisable to millions of ordinary Brits. Another stat we learned this week is that 81 per cent of all immigration onto these islands is now coming from outside Europe — typically India, Pakistan, Nigeria and China, which have radically different cultures, identities and histories. Given all this, then, is it really any surprise that according to one pollster this week, close to half of all British people, including the vast majority who plan to vote for Nigel Farage and Reform, openly agree with the line: 'I sometimes feel like a stranger in my own country.' I know I do. And you know what? I suspect that were those brave soldiers in Dunkirk, our ancestors, returning to the Britain and England of today, they would too.
Daily Mail
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
What British children are REALLY being taught in school: Transatlantic slavery becomes most studied topic in UK history lessons - with only one in 10 students learning about Trafalgar and Waterloo
Fewer than one in five schools are teaching students about inspirational British victories such as Agincourt, Waterloo and Trafalgar, a study has found. The report discovered that while almost all pupils are being informed about the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the First World War, children are by and large being left in the dark about other history-changing moments. Chief among these are the battles of Waterloo and Trafalgar, with only 11 per cent of UK secondary schools teaching the details to their students, despite their vital roles in the history of the British Empire. The Battle of Trafalgar saw the Royal Navy defeat the French and Spanish fleets in 1805, confirming British supremacy of the seas, while the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the rise of British Empire. Meanwhile only 18 per cent of students are being taught about the Battle of Agincourt in the Hundreds Years' War, which confirmed Henry V as one of England's greatest kings. The report, by Policy Exchange, found that by comparison nearly all schools are teaching children about the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the Abolition of Slavery and the Norman Conquest of England. The data, which focuses on curriculums taught to Key Stage Three students - those aged between 11 and 14 - shows that schools have 'diversified' their syllabus after the Conservative government announced plans to focus on topics of 'cultural change' in 2022. The overhaul was introduced to allow children aged five to 14 to focus on the rich breadth of history, rather than being taught a narrow range of British-centric topics solely in preparation for GCSEs. However, many have said it's gone too far, former history teacher and chairman of Campaign for Real Education Chris McGovern said it was 'clear that the subject has been captured by the Left'. He warned that history is 'seen as a vehicle for undermining and destroying British national identity'. The top five most studied topics are now the Transatlantic Slave Trade (99 per cent), Britain in WW1 (99 per cent), the Norman Conquest (98 per cent), the Abolition of Slavery (96 per cent) and Reformation (95 per cent). Sitting right at the bottom of the list was the Battles of Trafalgar and Waterloo with only 11 per cent of students studying the topic. They were closely followed by the Battle of Agincourt (18 per cent), the Boer War (25 per cent) and the Irish potato famine (26 per cent). The former Secretary of State for Education, Nadhim Zahawi praised the report. He said: 'This thorough report from Policy Exchange demonstrates how much progress has been made over the last fifteen years, with increasing numbers of students receiving a knowledge-rich, chronological history education during Key Stage Three. 'It was heartening to see that core topics such as Magna Carta, the Reformation, the Industrial Revolution, the Slave Trade and its abolition, and Britain's roles in the World Wars are each taught in over 85% of schools. 'Though disappointing that inspiring events in English history such as the Battles of Agincourt, Trafalgar and Waterloo appear to have dropped off the curriculum.' While the report did warn that 'in too many cases this process has gone too far, leading to the teaching of radical and contested interpretations of the past as fact.' It also highlighted positive aspects of exposing students to varied studies, including key areas of British history such as the women's suffrage movement. The report also found that the topics studied at GCSE and A-Level are too narrow and competitive. Policy Exchange recommended a new British history survey paper from 1066 to 1989 to replace the current exams sat at GCSE. In another shocking revelation, it revealed that 53 per cent of people would say their knowledge on British history has been informed by film and television. And a whopping 15 per cent said they learn about history through social media. While as little as 12 per cent say their knowledge comes from newspaper and news media outlets. A spokesperson for the Department of Education said: 'High and rising standards are at the heart of the government's mission to break down the barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start. 'The independent, expert-led Curriculum and Assessment review is considering how to ensure young people have access to a broad and balanced curriculum that ensures young people leave school ready for work and ready for life.'
The Sun
17-05-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Teach more British history, former Education Secretaries say
KIDS must learn more British history like the Battle of Waterloo, two former education secretaries say. Labour's David Blunkett and Tory Nadhim Zahawi have joined forces to back a drive to get more British history taught at GCSE level. 4 Key moments in British history have been dropped from studies, an investigation by Policy Exchange found. The think tank found only 11 per cent of schools teaching the Battles of Trafalgar and Waterloo. They called for a new paper to be introduced for all students taking history at GCSE covering British history from 1066 to 1989. Mr Zahawi said it would ensure children have a 'strong understanding' of Britain's national story. He added: 'As a boy who arrived in this great country from Baghdad, I know how important it is that every child in this country – regardless of birth and background – has the opportunity to learn about Britain's inspiring heritage." Lord Blunkett said: 'Students clearly recognise the importance of a grasp of history.' The report also found that over 85 per cent of secondary schools already teach the Norman Conquest, Magna Carta, Industrial Revolution, Slave Trade, colonialism and Britain's roles in the World Wars in years 7 to 9. But, the Wars of the Roses, the Act of Union and the Battle of Agincourt are taught by far fewer schools. Trump promises to restore 'patriotic education' and slams schools 'taking away history' by wanting to teach kids about slavery 4 4
