Home
Council Tax
Motoring
Education
Law and Order
Welfare State
Pensions
Rights
Asylum Seekers
P C
Europe
LINKS
gos.com
Isitfair.co.uk
Global Warming
Education Education Education!
Comprehensive Schools, at their inception, were nothing to do with education but an exercise in social engineering. No child was to be allowed to gain any advantage over its peers. This was taken to such ridiculous lengths that competitive sport was abolished in order that there would be no winners and losers.
The Comprehensive versus Grammar argument is merely an extension of this nonsense. All children are not equal, and never will be, they vary from the child with learning difficulties to the child prodigy, one size fits all is patent nonsense. Teaching methods that had stood the test of time were replaced with vague theories such as child-led education.
Reading skills based on phonetics were abandoned, spelling and grammar didn’t matter. Things became so bad that it became necessary to introduce a literacy hour in Primary schools. Prior to that one can only wonder what on earth the schools were doing?
Even now the teaching unions are complaining that testing is preventing primary schools from doing other things. I would have thought the main purpose of primary schools was to turn out pupils who have the basics of literacy and numeracy in order that they can benefit from secondary education. Currently 40% of children leaving primary schools are below par in the basics.
The attack also turned to the Grammar Schools, those centres of excellence that had allowed generations of bright children to advance to better things, often being the first in their families to go on to University, including quite a number of our present rulers.
Anthony Crossland, Education Secretary at the time, vowed ‘If it’s the last thing I do , I’m going to destroy every f****** grammar school’.
Peter Hain is now saying virtually the same thing. Don’t they ever learn!
Comprehensive Schools, at their inception, were nothing to do with education but an exercise in social engineering. No child was to be allowed to gain any advantage over its peers. This was taken to such ridiculous lengths that competitive sport was abolished in order that there would be no winners and losers.
The Comprehensive versus Grammar argument is merely an extension of this nonsense. All children are not equal, and never will be, they vary from the child with learning difficulties to the child prodigy, one size fits all is patent nonsense. Teaching methods that had stood the test of time were replaced with vague theories such as child-
Reading skills based on phonetics were abandoned, spelling and grammar didn’t matter. Things became so bad that it became necessary to introduce a literacy hour in Primary schools. Prior to that one can only wonder what on earth the schools were doing?
Even now the teaching unions are complaining that testing is preventing primary schools from doing other things. I would have thought the main purpose of primary schools was to turn out pupils who have the basics of literacy and numeracy in order that they can benefit from secondary education. Currently 40% of children leaving primary schools are below par in the basics.
The attack also turned to the Grammar Schools, those centres of excellence that had allowed generations of bright children to advance to better things, often being the first in their families to go on to University, including quite a number of our present rulers.
Anthony Crossland, Education Secretary at the time, vowed ‘If it’s the last thing I do , I’m going to destroy every f****** grammar school’.
Peter Hain is now saying virtually the same thing. Don’t they ever learn!
In Northern Ireland 67% of parents voted to retain Grammar Schools - Peter Hain and the Education Lobby has decided to abolish them.
Who the hell are they representing?
CONFIRMATION: (Feb. 2006) An Edinburgh University Study has found that three decades of comprehensive schooling has failed to improve the prospects of poorer children.
After yet another rise in GCSE pass rates it is surely right to express concern. Even the brightest candidates have virtually abandoned basic punctuation, spelling and grammar. Exam. board Edexcel warned that teenagers were increasingly using ‘text isms' in examinations.
Perhaps the answer is to increase the 13% portion of marks allocated to these basic precepts of English. The government claim 58.1% of pupils gain five GCSE passes at A-C. However if you include English, maths science and foreign languages the figure drops to 25.7%.
The Commons Public Accounts Committee stated in a recent report that 12 million workers have the literacy skills and 16 million have the numeracy skills at OR BELOW level one - a standard expected of eleven year olds.
The Government launched a £6 billion drive to improve adult literacy and numeracy standards. However, 50% of the funds so far spent have gone to 16-18 year olds. So much for current education standards. Universities are also claiming they have to give remedial lessons to many new entrants. In spite of this investment? Basic standards of literacy and numeracy have fallen to 2000 levels. Meanwhile class sizes are among the largest in the world.
This is just the latest in a long line of expensive initiatives. Previous ones on computing, truancy, inner-city schools and university attendance by poor children have all failed. Even one of the much hyped City Technology Colleges is reported to be close to being placed in special needs.
It should be compulsory for everyone in our educational establishment to study Messner High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the United States. In an area where less than half of 18 year olds achieve the most basic levels of literacy Messner boasts a 97% attendance rate with 87% of pupils going on to college. There is nothing magical in what has been achieved, zero tolerance to indiscipline, a strictly enforced dress code and adherence to traditional teaching methods were all that it required
Back to basics is surely the only remedy.
University Education. The same nonsense is now being forced on our universities. If not enough pupils from working class backgrounds or the ethnic minorities are getting places, it is because there is something intrinsically wrong with the way they are being educated. Of course universities are elitist. They are meant to accommodate the brightest and best of our young people. 30% of undergraduates at some Universities drop out in the first year and 30% who go on to gain a degree find employment for which they are over qualified. What does the government hope to achieve by forcing half of all school leavers to go on to university?.
The latest lunacy is for Universities to question potential students on the educational qualifications of their parents. This can only be so that they can select more students from poor backgrounds to the detriment of better qualified individuals. Why on earth must equality always be in the downward direction.
My apologies. That is not the latest lunacy. It is now proposed that all children should stay at school or in training until they are eighteen. A large proportion have stopped learning by the time they are 14, what chance of maintaining discipline and attendance for a further 4 years.
You couldn’t make it up!
Police officers who speak English as a second language, many of whom were educated abroad, achieved a 94.7% pass rate in promotion examinations. Native English speakers managed 77.1%. And still, in the opinion of our politicians, they think we have the finest education in the world. Will you tell them or shall I?
Have you an opinion? Education@turning-worm.com
Who the hell are they representing?
CONFIRMATION: (Feb. 2006) An Edinburgh University Study has found that three decades of comprehensive schooling has failed to improve the prospects of poorer children.
After yet another rise in GCSE pass rates it is surely right to express concern. Even the brightest candidates have virtually abandoned basic punctuation, spelling and grammar. Exam. board Edexcel warned that teenagers were increasingly using ‘text isms' in examinations.
Perhaps the answer is to increase the 13% portion of marks allocated to these basic precepts of English. The government claim 58.1% of pupils gain five GCSE passes at A-
The Commons Public Accounts Committee stated in a recent report that 12 million workers have the literacy skills and 16 million have the numeracy skills at OR BELOW level one -
The Government launched a £6 billion drive to improve adult literacy and numeracy standards. However, 50% of the funds so far spent have gone to 16-
This is just the latest in a long line of expensive initiatives. Previous ones on computing, truancy, inner-
It should be compulsory for everyone in our educational establishment to study Messner High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the United States. In an area where less than half of 18 year olds achieve the most basic levels of literacy Messner boasts a 97% attendance rate with 87% of pupils going on to college. There is nothing magical in what has been achieved, zero tolerance to indiscipline, a strictly enforced dress code and adherence to traditional teaching methods were all that it required
Back to basics is surely the only remedy.
University Education. The same nonsense is now being forced on our universities. If not enough pupils from working class backgrounds or the ethnic minorities are getting places, it is because there is something intrinsically wrong with the way they are being educated. Of course universities are elitist. They are meant to accommodate the brightest and best of our young people. 30% of undergraduates at some Universities drop out in the first year and 30% who go on to gain a degree find employment for which they are over qualified. What does the government hope to achieve by forcing half of all school leavers to go on to university?.
The latest lunacy is for Universities to question potential students on the educational qualifications of their parents. This can only be so that they can select more students from poor backgrounds to the detriment of better qualified individuals. Why on earth must equality always be in the downward direction.
My apologies. That is not the latest lunacy. It is now proposed that all children should stay at school or in training until they are eighteen. A large proportion have stopped learning by the time they are 14, what chance of maintaining discipline and attendance for a further 4 years.
You couldn’t make it up!
Police officers who speak English as a second language, many of whom were educated abroad, achieved a 94.7% pass rate in promotion examinations. Native English speakers managed 77.1%. And still, in the opinion of our politicians, they think we have the finest education in the world. Will you tell them or shall I?
Have you an opinion? Education@turning-
