Our ejoocashen cisterm

• howard mcsweeney1

  • Location: Dover
  • Registered: 12 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 62,352
  9 September 2011     09:40125520
  #1      
  eye opening stuff in this article.
  
  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2035205/It-doesnt-add-Were-worse-maths-Albania-UK-schools-rank-43rd-world.html
• Guest 683

  • Registered: 11 Feb 2009
  • Posts: 1,052
  9 September 2011     10:08125524
  #2      
  Howard
  politicians over the past 30 years have meddled in education without a real understanding of the outcomes. A quick look at the internet reveals the top 10 attributes that employers want in their employees;
  
  Verbal and written communication skills
  Honesty and integrity
  Interpersonal skills
  Teamwork skills
  Strong work ethic
  Motivation and initiative
  Flexibility and adaptability
  Computer skills
  Analytical skills
  Organisational skills
  
  The current education system does little to address these because they cannot be so easily measured as the numbers of GCSEs or A levels achieved.
  We need an honest debate as to what education is about - making a life or making a living? - as my guru, Neil Postman put it.
• Guest 696

  • Registered: 31 Mar 2010
  • Posts: 8,115
  9 September 2011     10:11125526
  #3      
  This is hard to take in!
  There was me thinking that the number of people going to university in Britain had increased many-fold, and assuming that one must have done well at school to get into university.
  
  With so many people going to uni, one would expect Britain to be top ranking world-wide in education.
  Chanters, Drums and Drones Potty Time http://youtu.be/99fMqpjnXYA
  Rule Britannia!
  Kent First http://youtu.be/04F3mAP3fV4 Keep banging on http://youtu.be/qYCU_SKmkGQ
• Guest 696

  • Registered: 31 Mar 2010
  • Posts: 8,115
  9 September 2011     10:15125527
  #4      
  Just read Mark's post, and found myself lacking in flexibility and adaptability.
  Chanters, Drums and Drones Potty Time http://youtu.be/99fMqpjnXYA
  Rule Britannia!
  Kent First http://youtu.be/04F3mAP3fV4 Keep banging on http://youtu.be/qYCU_SKmkGQ
• Guest 683

  • Registered: 11 Feb 2009
  • Posts: 1,052
  9 September 2011     10:56125536
  #5      
  That surprises me Alex!
  I have had a look at the report. Despite the reasoned debate that The Mail is trying to provoke it would seem that the UK is not languishing at the bottom of the pile. In fact it lies in 10th position, out of 142 countries, whilst Albania is 78th and Iran 62nd.
• Guest 645

  • Registered: 12 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 4,463
  9 September 2011     10:58125538
  #6      
  Before you all get your knickers in a twist here are the top 6 universities in the world. You will note the UK is top and has 3 in top 6.
  
  #1.University of Cambridge
  United Kingdom
  
  #2 Harvard University
  United States
  
  #3 Yale University
  United States
  
  #4 UCL (University College London)
  United Kingdom
  
  #5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
  United States
  
  #6 University of Oxford
  United Kingdom
  Marek
  I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter)
• Guest 696

  • Registered: 31 Mar 2010
  • Posts: 8,115
  9 September 2011     10:59125539
  #7      
  Now we're talking sense!
  Chanters, Drums and Drones Potty Time http://youtu.be/99fMqpjnXYA
  Rule Britannia!
  Kent First http://youtu.be/04F3mAP3fV4 Keep banging on http://youtu.be/qYCU_SKmkGQ
• Bern

  • Location: Dover
  9 September 2011     11:00125540
  #8      
  My children have either finished school or are nearly finished. My son is at Durham Uni and doing well - he is motivated and bright. He is at Durham despite rather than because of his school and the system. My girls are less fortunate. I am not abdicating my responsibility in their education - far from it! But school is paid for educating children and my girls were let down by a chaotic and unfocussed system which has talked the talk but has failed to walk the walk. My youngest girl will do well, again despite the system rather than because of it and because she has the examples of her siblings to reflect on. My husband and I work hard, long hours in demanding jobs and we work just as hard at supporting our children - we expect the schools to do their bit to support us in bringing up and educating our children. The jobs we do support our society in the same way schools are supposed to - it seems reasonable to expect some symbiosis. We have found that emails and letters go without response, there is less time to educate those who need a bit of extra support because the school appears to focus mainly on those who will show up positively on their stats, meetings are arranged during a working day which is almost impossible for us to factor into our diaries, especially when they are short notice, and parent-teacher evenings are noisy and chaotic reducing to almost nil the opportunity to have a meaningful conversation about ones child, if the teacher can actually remember who they are.
  
  These are the "better" schools. Goodness only knows what the others might be like, although I have heard positive things about some of the schools who do not have the title and (very historic) reputation to fall back on and therefore may try harder.
• Guest 710

  • Registered: 28 Feb 2011
  • Posts: 6,950
  9 September 2011     11:16125542
  #9      
  Should one wish to rearrange your list Mark, one could discover that the initial letters could be made to turn out this way...
  
  V macho shit, no 'f'-inclusion.
  
  Education IS indeed a lifelong thing. A new word is needed to describe more accurately just what is intended by our communal instruction of our children.
  
  The great divide that cleaves across all that Government is involved with stems from the 'two sword lengths plus a foot' that separates our representatives in Parliament. Thus the outcome most desired is conflict. Education is then a matter solely of creating winners and wasters.
  This is why we have record numbers of University entrants and record numbers of those that are (we are repeatedly told) 'unemployable'.
  Where would our current Political System be if we, as a nation, stove to and succeeded in developing well rounded human beings from out of our education system?
  
  Where is the praise for the organisational skills displayed by the rioters? Their flexibility and adaptability?
  Maybe what is needed is for each child to be assured of a decent future and nurtured into becoming an integral part of our community. To consistently ignore swathes of our young does not result in their vanishing, nor lessen their intrinsic worth.
  
  The Daily Mail puts the 'I' in Mal.
  Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
• Guest 683

  • Registered: 11 Feb 2009
  • Posts: 1,052
  9 September 2011     11:20125544
  #10      
  Tom,
  I like your style!
• Bern

  • Location: Dover
  9 September 2011     11:29125549
  #11      
  Tom - you make me smile.
  
  And you are right.
• howard mcsweeney1

  • Location: Dover
  • Registered: 12 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 62,352
  9 September 2011     11:46125554
  #12      
  it always comes across to me that the schools teach the kids to pass exams rather than give them a good rounded education that will help them fit into working life.
  
  probably the fault of the rest of us as everyone looks to get their offspring into the top performing schools.
• Bern

  • Location: Dover
  9 September 2011     11:56125559
  #13      
  It is not the fault of the rest of us. Teachers and head teachers are recruited, trained and paid to teach and to educate, and to act in loco parentis. We have paid for the service already, it is not unreasonable to expect it to be delivered.
• howard mcsweeney1

  • Location: Dover
  • Registered: 12 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 62,352
  9 September 2011     12:00125561
  #14      
  that is what they are doing, providing results as evidenced by the the year on year rise in exam passes.
• Bern

  • Location: Dover
  9 September 2011     12:12125563
  #15      
  I would challenge that.
• Jan Higgins

  • Location: Dover
  • Registered: 5 Jul 2010
  • Posts: 13,931
  9 September 2011     12:37125566
  #16      
  Blame the desire for exam results on the league tables, to classed as a 'good' school you have to be near the top of the table. The children might be able to pass all their exams but be useless at the life skills that the employers want.
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  I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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• Bern

  • Location: Dover
  9 September 2011     13:04125572
  #17      
  But one of my points is that the schools themselves fail to display courtesy and other desirable qualities. Recently I had a teacher complain that my daughter was late contacting her, and yet almost all of the emails and letters and phone calls I have made to the school have gone unanswered unless I follow them up myself, further, my contact details were 3-4 years out of date despite me alerting the school by email, phone, on paper by post and by hand every time they changed - not one of the changes had been recorded effectively leading to me not being contacted in an emergency. Even a "good" school fails at this basic level - what hope is there for the students they are trying to lead by example?
• Guest 640

  • Registered: 21 Apr 2007
  • Posts: 7,819
  11 September 2011     10:34125880
  #18      
  Reg wanted to put the following up but is still having a spot of difficulty.
  Here we are Reg me oul china..
  
  * *
  
  
  

  

  
  Cartoon by Phil Disley of The Independent
  
  `` The Dumping Duo``
  
  Gove, now Flashman are making a Quagmire of our Education with their intention to open the flood gates of ``New Free Schools``which will creat a liquorice allsorts of our education system..........Say the real experts.
  
  
  
  email: dover7@msn.com