Smile- Or Else!

Trying to measure happiness is a tricky proposition, so for the government to be considering using it to assess schools is odd, although picking arbitary and hard to measure criteria with which to assess schools does make it easier to show 'improvement' year on year.

It follows a recent report from the Children's Society that said that competitive schooling, league tables and selfish parenting was creating a generation of miserable young people.

But the "happiness" measures are being opposed by teachers' leaders, who claim they are almost impossible to quantify.

f one believes that the unhappiness is caused by competitiveness then making schools compete to show how happy they are is a very New Labour solution.