I end this small run of blog posts with the question posed by Professor Brian Boyd at the beginning of our evening: Do we want to close the achievement gap? We know we can close the gap. It's been done or almost been done before in Scottish education, but the answers have been ignored as they pass us by. The simple clue is this: poverty is single biggest predictor of achievement, and according to research (Hammonds sic, reference required), aged 10, a child living in poverty is 60% less likely to get to university. Boyd borrowed from his own mother's report card to ask us what kind of education we desire. Is it the academic success at all costs route, or is there another option we need to value as much, if not more? His mother's report card, one that prevented her from becoming a secondary school pupil in Glasgow, is filled with G and FG, until the last point: Character and conduct - excellent. What kind of pupils do we want to develop in Scotland? What do we value in our assessment system? Opening up opportunity for all is a tough game to play when the examination system rewards only certain types of behaviour, few of them related to what the Curriculum for Excellence says we stand for. In his own small community in East Kilbride, three secondary schools enter a period of meltdown as the local rag sets about creating its own local league table of performance, with those three 'teams' in competition for the top spot (or at least not the bottom one). Therefore, we must stop basing "the gap" largely on attainment. First of all, Boyd would like us to remove the traditional, and non-sensical academic/vocational divide. Is the law or medicine degree we value not vocational? (Are all General Practitioners not Plumbers, as Dr Murray on the panel suggests?) Question: Who is Hammond === The answer to the above question is
OPTIONS:
- A student
- A professor
- A teacher
- not enough information

Answer: not enough information

Question: SEOUL South Korea is looking into developing and financing economic projects with North Korea that could take effect if a nuclear deal is reached with the United States. South Korean Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said on Wednesday the government was "internally carrying out preparations" to organize, finance and implement possible inter-Korea projects. But he also emphasized that Seoul would first seek support from the international community for any North Korean development projects, and would only proceed if the U.S. -North Korea summit, expected to be held in late May or June, produces a joint denuclearization agreement. North Korea is under tough sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council for its nuclear weapons and missiles tests, including accelerated efforts in the last two years to develop a long-range nuclear missile that could potentially target the U.S. mainland. The international sanctions ban an estimated 90 percent of the country's external trade. Seeking sanctions relief is considered a key motivating factor in North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's diplomatic pivot this year to suspend further provocative missile and nuclear tests, and to engage in talks to dismantle his nuclear arsenal. But easing sanctions would make it more difficult to enforce the North's denuclearization promises. "Once the sanctions are lifted, North Korea will gain autonomy over its trade, and considering its low labor costs and skilled workforce, I think the North Korean economy would gain power again," said Shin Beom-chul, the director of Center for Security and Unification at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. U.S. President Donald Trump has insisted he will keep sanctions in place until North Korea completely dismantles its nuclear program. South Korea, however, is considering a range of economic incentives to encourage Kim to follow through on a nuclear deal with Trump. But these investments are prohibited by the U.N. sanctions and would require a Security Council exemption to proceed. At the recent... Question: The Summit will last how long? === The answer to the above question is
OPTIONS:
- Only a hort period.
- not enough information
- Long enough to make a deal with Trump.
- Two days.
Answer: Two days.

Question: Randy Poskin, a soybean farmer in rural Illinois, voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. But ask him now he feels about that decision, and you get a tepid response. "I'm not sure," Poskin said. Like many farmers in the Midwest, Poskin is concerned about getting caught in the middle of a trade war, as Trump ramps up economic pressure on China. Those fears were heightened after Trump announced plans Thursday to impose tariffs on as much as $60 billion worth of Chinese imports. "I'm fearful they will retaliate on those tariffs," Poskin said. "Soybean exports, wheat, poultry, chicken, beef [there are] any number of products that we export to their country that they could retaliate with." The announcement has unnerved many in Trump's base of supporters in U.S. agriculture. The trade tensions have also rattled global markets, which until recently had performed strongly. Trump's tariff decision was meant to punish Chinese companies that benefit from unfair access to U.S. technology. U.S. businesses have long bristled at Beijing's requirement that they transfer technology to Chinese companies as a condition of entering the Chinese market. U.S. businesses have also had their technology stolen through cyberattacks. "We have a tremendous intellectual property theft situation going on," Trump said during the signing ceremony Thursday. Some U.S. companies in China cheered the move and suggested that concerns about a trade war were overblown. William Zarit, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, dismissed the "hair on fire" concern that Trump's proposed moves would hurt the global economy. "That the U.S. is willing to risk these disruptions indicates how serious the U.S. administration finds China's forced technology transfer, cybertheft and discriminatory industrial policies," he said in a statement to VOA. Zarit pointed to a recent survey suggesting members of his organization wanted the White House to "advocate more strongly for a level playing field and for reciprocal treatment to... Question: What tariffs is Pres Trump responsible for? === The answer to the above question is
OPTIONS:
- not enough information
- those imposed on US
- those imposed on china
- those imposed on both countries
Answer:
those imposed on china