England's young people near bottom of global league table for basic skills

[LateX'Dog]

Let me say, older people are really no better. The amount of times I've been stunned by the sheer stupidity of people of ALL ages is shocking. But it really isn't any better elsewhere; stupidity is endemic to humaniy.

I appreciate that, but I'm talking from a purely educational basis here.

 

[Xordium]

My wife teaches Psychology and Statistics at a University ranging from 1st year degree to 2nd year PhD.

As she tells me, experiencing the level of stupidity she encounters on a daily basis from that range of students for the last 3 years is one of the sole driving forces behind us leaving the UK.

The stories she comes home and tells me is pretty shocking and goes completely against what the general public think in relation to the education they feel there kids are getting.

If you train a kid to pass exams, they'll master passing exams, but lack knowledge. And this is exactly the system the UK runs.

So why does she stick with you and all your crazy theories and run to the internet approach for advice about your kid?

 

[smelly_legend]

Personally, I blame the children.

 

[Dolph]

But you've already indicated you believe these tests to not be fit for purpose. But you then want to tie another consequence to their inaccuracy?



But then are you not adding a great unnecessary workload both on kids, their teachers and moreover adding in another layer of management. Isn't this part of the problem we have across all sectors that people are that busy measuring the indicators of quality that we don't actually have the time or the bodies to actually add quality?



And a 5 year old would be objective on this? And if it happened in my lads class the poor teacher would get super low scores because she is unfortunate enough to be in the position where she has to challenge half the parents for not assisting at all and then ducking the sharp pointy elbows from the other half.



But to what satisfaction as above - what parents and children may consider a good outcome is not necessarily the right outcome.


I do agree with what you are saying broadly but I do think the biggest change has to be in teacher to pupil ratios. I've spent quite a bit of time observing and it is blatantly obvious that not all kids are getting the attention they require and then are causing problems and the poor teachers are spending more time firefighting than teaching and whilst putting out one lot of fires the next lot are starting. I am not sure performance related pay can be made to work or would offer any benefit.

I would also add I think there needs to be a good look at what levels of protection can be instigated to facilitate men entering the profession. I don't think it is healthy for young boys to have such female centred workforce. This is more pronounced if they have no positive male role model at home. I know the biggest influence on my life was from the timely intervention of a male supply teacher when I was 7 - he recognised me as a child who was unchallenged not the antichrist the rest thought I was. Wish I had the opportunity to thank the bloke.

The fact that no one measure is perfect is the reason why you use multiple metrics and don't target perfection because it is not realistic. The aim is to ultimately differentiate between teacher performance which the stricture above would do while taking a variety of areas into account.

I share your experience of teachers and not being challenged as well, the system fails children at both the top and the bottom on a frequent basis. I do question the current wisdom which allows disruptive or high needs children to starve the rest of the class of attention and concentration.

 

[Hades]

The state of education and the lack of drive most people have in this country shocks me. I have two children and recently took my daughter out of state education and am now paying for it privately. When I can afford the same for my younger son we will move him too.

The difference in attitude and standard of teaching at the private school is way, way higher than the state system. But I would say it's the state school that has dropped in standard rather than the private system being that much better. My daughters school reminds me of the standard I received at my local comprehensive when I was younger. But the state school here is just awful.

Case in point: At 10 years old my daughter is now doing conversational French along with maths and english that challengers her. At her old school it was so very basic she used to complain about being bored. She could never get any work done because the classs was so disruptive and when we challenged the teacher she told us she was too busy to concentrate on BOTH teaching AND discipline and which did we want? Similarly my son was told that the sports day race he won was declared a tie because the second place boy was very close behind him.

When I interview people for jobs I generally find most young British people to be of a far lower standard than their European counterparts.