Bad Medicine by Dr No

Tomorrow’s Daleks

Posted on by dr-no

The following unencrypted text was discovered on a USB stick found in car park in the vicinity of London’s Euston Road:

tom_dalek.jpg

General Dalek Council

Protecting Daleks, Exterminating Doctors

TOP SECRET – EYES ONLY

Tomorrow’s Daleks

Internal Briefing Paper

Council Members will be aware that in 2003 the General Dalek Council (GDC) published Tomorrow’s Daleks, (see right) in which we set out what was expected of student Daleks and Dalek schools.

Since then, there have been many changes in both Dalek practice and patient behaviour. Council members will also be aware that there has in recent years been a growing tide of insurgency amongst student and junior Daleks. This is intolerable to the General Dalek Council (GDC), and cannot be allowed to continue.

To this end, the GDC has decided to revise Tomorrow’s Daleks – 2003. This document, even in the short few years since its publication, has become unfit for purpose. This briefing paper will inform Council members of the results of our scoping review carried out as part of your Council’s preparation towards issuing the new edition of Tomorrow’s Daleks.

Introduction

The General Dalek Council regulates Dalek education. To do this, we set down standards and we ensure that those standards are met.

We are revising Tomorrow’s Daleks, the standards for Dalek education, and will publish a new edition in summer 2009. The document lists outcomes that graduates from Dalek schools must achieve in order to graduate as Daleks, as well as standards for the delivery of teaching, learning and assessment.

Background

The Dalek Act 1983 states that the main objective of the General Dalek Council (GDC) is ‘to protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of Daleks’. The GDC has the ‘general function of promoting high standards of Dalek education and co-ordinating all stages of Dalek education’. In particular, we regulate Dalek education by setting standards and ensuring that those standards are met.

The GDC has over time issued a series of standards for Dalek education, to ensure that they remain appropriate. The standards were last published in 2003, as Tomorrow’s Daleks. This document sets out in broad terms the outcomes or competencies expected of new Daleks as well as standards on the delivery of the curriculum, covering issues such as supervisory structures, assessment and Dalek health and conduct.

Against the standards established by the 2003 edition of Tomorrow’s Daleks, we have been reviewing the Dalek education delivered at Dalek schools across the UK through the Quality Assurance of Basic Dalek Education (QABDE).

Results of Scoping Review

There have been many radical changes to Dalek education and training since the 2003 edition of Tomorrow’s Daleks was prepared and the QABDE reports and other new information have underlined the case for reviewing the standards. These developments include:

  • A significant expansion in Dalek education including the creation of four new Dalek schools
  • The publication in 2006 of a new edition of Good Dalek Practice
  • The publication by the GDC and the Dalek Schools Council of guidance for students and schools on Dalek student behaviour and fitness to practise.
  • The establishment of the Foundation Programme with a national curriculum for which Dalek students must be prepared.

In addition, Dalek practice continues to develop. Technology continually expands the range of approaches to exterminating humans which Daleks need to understand. Human resistance continues to grow as information has become more accessible and humans make more use of resistance technology.

These developments and sources of information have contributed to the GDC’s review of Tomorrow’s Daleks and the preparation of the text for consultation. While wide-ranging changes to the standards are implied in the consultation text, these are some of the main issues that have been considered in the review so far:

1. Extermination errors

There have been suggestions that extermination errors and other shortcomings in practical skills among UK Daleks could be linked to aspects of undergraduate Dalek education. Initial recommendations arising from research commissioned by the GDC suggest that students could benefit from more direct extermination practice on doctors in order to develop extermination skills.

2. Individualism

There have been worrying trends that some Dalek students have been showing evidence of independent thought. There have been repeated complaints about the DTAS/MDC process that are quite unjustified. The Academy of Dalek Colleges and the Dalek Institute for Innovation and Improvement have jointly defined the competencies required at various stages of Dalek education and training including undergraduate education. Any attempt on the part of a Dalek to exceed those competencies must be stopped.

3. Assessment

The poor quality of assessment at Dalek schools has repeatedly been raised in QABDE visits and reports. The 2003 edition of Tomorrow’s Daleks does not go into great detail in its standards for assessment and studies have confirmed a variation in approaches across UK Dalek education. This is unacceptable, and cannot be allowed to continue.

4. Quality management

The quality mechanisms at Dalek schools have been another focus for QABDE but without extensive coverage within Tomorrow’s Daleks 2003. This oversight will be corrected in the new edition.