No doubt many were appalled, although probably not surprised, by the OECD’s findings published yesterday.
In the light of them I thought Malala’s comments were instructive. If mods feel this will open the unattractive sores of the earlier thread then please amend or delete.
“Malala shames this country, where the craven creed of multiculturalism allows girls to disappear into forced marriages at the age of 14, and a free Muslim school in Derby is just one of many that should face closure over “practices which discriminate against girls and women”. Above all, Malala shames the “Am I bovvered?” young and their parents who take education for granted. “I want to tell students [in the UK] to think that it’s very precious, it’s very prestigious,” Malala told interviewer Mishal Husain. “Go to school. Reading a book, having a pen in our hands, studying sitting together, in a classroom, is very special to us.”
How relevant her words seem, in the week when a major international study revealed that England and Northern Ireland have among the worst levels of numeracy and literacy in the developed world. Not only do our 16- to 24-year-olds rank 22nd for literacy and 21st for numeracy, they are likely to be less skilled than their grandparents. Instead of having a highly educated upcoming generation, we are relying on the over-fifties to keep the show on the road. Those of us who dared to challenge pious New Labour education ministers when they reeled off inexorably improving exam results were told to stop knocking the achievement of hard-working teachers and pupils. It is now clear that those exam results were a cruel mirage. Dumbing down is a real and present danger to this country’s prosperity.
How would you explain British educational decline to Malala? In her homeland, pupils may be so poor they use chalk and slates, but education is considered prestigious and special, which means many of the brightest students are attracted into teaching. Because teachers have high status, pupils are respectful and they work hard, because education is the difference between a decent life and dire poverty. While Pakistani girls like Malala are dying for the right to go to school, truants in Britain miss 3.7 million school days in a single term.
In Britain, the rights of the child have eclipsed the rights of the teacher to teach and to discipline. (Malala was astonished that the staff at her new Birmingham school didn’t use a cane on unruly pupils, as they do back home.) Children’s growing sense of untouchability has led to a situation where a fifth of teachers say they have been physically assaulted by pupils. So, in Pakistan, the teachers hit the kids and here the kids hit the teachers. And we call this progress.”
By: Paul F - 10th October 2013 at 13:55
Those of us who dared to challenge pious New Labour education ministers when they reeled off inexorably improving exam results were told to stop knocking the achievement of hard-working teachers and pupils. It is now clear that those exam results were a cruel mirage. Dumbing down is a real and present danger to this country’s prosperity.
Ah, but as we all know, statistics can lie – maybe the exam results were indeed “improving” amongst those that actually sat exams, but if there were ever more students not sitting the exams then the figures belied the truth, as the overall “average” standards were probably falling, even if the “eduated few” were gaining higher (or over-inflated :dev2:) grades.
Whatever the “politically manipulated” figures may have been telling us, the evidence is pretty clear, education standards have been falling for an ever increasing percentage of the population, albeit this had been hidden behind “smoke and mirrors”.
As ever, politicians were (and are still) simply trying to justify their next re-election, rather than admit the truth.
As a result, UK plc, and a generation of youngsters, now have to suffer the consequences, and another mess has to be unravelled by those that inherit the legacy.
IMHO too many parents seem to see education of their offspring solely as someone else’s responsibility, and they thus offer their kids little support, or discipline, at home. Worse still, those same parents are often the first to blame their kids’ problems the schools/teachers.
If more parents took an active interest in their offspring’s upbringing and education, both via offering direct positive help and support at home, and indirectly by taking Government to task over the UK education system (via lobbying/ballot box etc) then maybe things would be better?
Whatever happened to the days in UK when teachers saw teaching as a vocation to be proud of rather than just a job with generous summer hols and a route to early retirement (and generous pension scheme), when discipline at school (and at home) was fair – but where wrong-doing was clearly punished, and where parents took an active interest in supporting teachers and schools, and to the society where everyone realised that working hard and doing your best improved your chances, and that relying on the State to keep you in comfort was generally seen as “embarrasing” rather than a right?
By: charliehunt - 10th October 2013 at 13:28
Thanks, Moggy – understood.
Linc – I endured the slipper and the cane and due to my somewhat rebellious nature probably more than most. I honestly don’t think it did me any harm other than as a degree of deterrence and rather sore hands and bum. B ut the general point about the relationship between teacher and taught has become very lopsided, to the detriment of all.
By: Moggy C - 10th October 2013 at 13:07
If mods feel this will open the unattractive sores of the earlier thread then please amend or delete.
Your OP is fine.
If it degenerates along the usual lines it will simply disappear.
Moggy
Moderator
By: Lincoln 7 - 10th October 2013 at 13:01
Food for thought Chas, I remember many yrs ago, my 3 kids attended the same school. One day, they all came home with a letter from the Headmaster telling their parents, that pupils would no longer “Get the cane”, OR detention for misbehaviour in the school.
I went to see the Headmaster the next day, and told him, that if any of my 3 kids warrented a cane for a wrong doing, then he would have my full backing.He stated that his hands had been tied with Red tape, and he had to abide by the new rules and regs. After that, things went down hill, and fast.
Jim.
Lincoln .7
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October 10, 2013 at 12:28 pm