I blame the teachers.....

peteblue · December 3, 2013

"For the first time, the UK does not make the top 20 in any subject, in international tests taken by 15 year olds in maths, reading and science.

Shanghai in China is the world's top performing education system, in the Pisa tests run by the OECD think tank.

Within the UK, Scotland outperformed England at maths and reading, but Wales is below average in all subjects."

.......and lazy kids, and useless governments and......

bluejock · December 3, 2013

The sooner we cut ourselves free from you lot dragging us down, the better.

rascal · December 3, 2013

Gove for the sack

BlueLlama · December 3, 2013

So when our kids take a proper test not the cack designed to give everyone a feel-good but meaningless qualification the kids cant do it?

chrismpw · December 3, 2013

I've been teaching for 25 years and have, for every one of them since 1993, pointed at the National Curriculum as pulling education down. We have lost breadth of knowledge, we have been told what to teach, how to teach and when to breathe in and out by the non-experts in government since 1993. It hasn't been working,so they've made exams simpler to hide the decline. The younger teachers now, are products of the National Curriculum, and their subject knowledge is (generally) abysmal - they know no better.

I'm waiting to be blamed in the media. Of course, government has a voice, but those who do and know the job just get to listen. We don't have a say, so just take the blame, from those at fault.

roydo · December 3, 2013

chrismpw said:
I've been teaching for 25 years and have, for every one of them since 1993, pointed at the National Curriculum as pulling education down. We have lost breadth of knowledge, we have been told what to teach, how to teach and when to breathe in and out by the non-experts in government since 1993. It hasn't been working,so they've made exams simpler to hide the decline. The younger teachers now, are products of the National Curriculum, and their subject knowledge is (generally) abysmal - they know no better.

I'm waiting to be blamed in the media. Of course, government has a voice, but those who do and know the job just get to listen. We don't have a say, so just take the blame, from those at fault.

Fair points mate. But shouldnt you be in school?

degsy · December 3, 2013

20, 30, 40 yrs of changing the education system based on 'new improved practices' with an Ideological tint ( mainly, but not exclusively, of the pinkish hue )

This dumbing down to the lowest common denominator ( LCD ) has led to kids who don't know what a LCD is.

We need a return to the 1944 education act of RA Butler, with a little bit of fettling for the 21st Cent...well at least a return to the spirit of the act.

short version; no more trendy theories and / or idealogical wish lists, political football-ism

teach em to read write spell add up divide subtract multiply up to what ever level they can handle. take care of the educational pennies and the educational pounds will i) take care of them selves ii) go to uni

Oh, and some jobs for both the pennies AND the pounds

Blue 1 · December 3, 2013

Bruce Wayne · December 3, 2013

Interesting piece by Robert Peston

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25198153

A couple of years ago, I spent some time with a Shanghai family, when making my documentary series "How the West Went Bust". The girl student in that family would put almost any western student to shame, with her industry and application.Or to put it another way, these differential outcomes between places like the UK and Shanghai are not just about the structure and resources of schools, but also about national culture and family values. This Chinese family not only created a study-conducive atmosphere in their small apartment, but were saving a huge share of a small income so that their child could afford to go to the best university.So if the UK wants to secure a rosier economic future, as much of the necessary work to raise education standards may well have to take place in the home as in the school.Which is not to say that how the state spends money on education is irrelevant.It is striking that the UK spends 18% more than the OECD average schooling each child aged between six and 15, for an outcome that is totally average, which rather implies there is something wrong in the schools themselves.The only positive thing to say about the UK is that the waste of education resources is not as bad - apparently - as in the US, which spends 17% more per student than we do for results that are even worse than ours.Which implies that most of the developed western economies, with the exception of better-performing Canada, Switzerland, Estonia, Finland and the Netherlands, are in the same handcart to a penurious hell.For what it is worth, the OECD believes that the most successful education systems are those where there is a huge emphasis on improving the qualities of teachers, and those teachers have considerable autonomy in the classroom. And by the way, it does not believe size of class is all that important.Certainly in respect of teacher independence, that description of high-performing schools does not sound like the UK.And the OECD says that more successful countries in education are those that make a huge and successful effort to raise the attainment of underprivileged kids. In this respect the UK is again - you've guessed it - distinctly average.

Tubey · December 3, 2013

It's almost entirely down to the curriculum, which to say the least is backwards in its approach. Actual knowledge or applicable life skills aren't taught to kids; rather, the teachers have to tick box a rigid educational format. If a teacher deviates from the norm and attempts to teach "properly", two things happen - they get criticised by their bosses, and the kids fail exams as they haven't practiced the memory test which basically constitutes a GCSE/A-Level these days.

But it's trendy to have a pop at teacher quality these days so let the bashing begin.

evilwebby · December 3, 2013

There is so much that is wrong with the school system, but that should not be a surprise to anyone. It is definitely NOT the fault of teachers. As with the NHS, the professionals who work in it are decent, honest, talented and hard-working. However, they are burdened by the bureaucratic nightmare of any large public centrally planned organisation.

The great lie that NuLab perpetuated was that we could have world class public services simply by outspending everyone else in those areas.

chrismpw · December 3, 2013

This:
"in the US, which spends 17% more per student than we do for results that are even worse than ours" - I remember a conversation with one Head in the mid 90s while being instructed to call First Years Year Seven, "what a pointless change" "- oh - it's because we're modelling ourselves on the US education system." "Isn't the British system better than theirs?" "well yes - but we can learn a lot from them, says the Education Secretary".

Clearly we did. They can't spell 'sulphur' or say 'aluminium' or 'nuclear'!

And this:
"It's almost entirely down to the curriculum, which to say the least is backwards in its approach. Actual knowledge or applicable life skills aren't taught to kids; rather, the teachers have to tick box a rigid educational format. If a teacher deviates from the norm and attempts to teach "properly", two things happen - they get criticised by their bosses, and the kids fail exams as they haven't practiced the memory test which basically constitutes a GCSE/A-Level these days."

And this:
"the professionals who work in it are decent, honest, talented and hard-working. However, they are burdened by the bureaucratic nightmare of any large public centrally planned organisation."

Bang the nail on the head.
The limited curriculum has caused the loss of an immense breadth of knowledge - stuff that's too hard for the little angels has been quietly dropped, to make the exams easier. Yesterday I had sight of a 1977 GCE O level paper. The last question asked the kids to interpret 3 different graphs to decide on the better material to make concorde from, as opposed to a fighter jet. A level students would cry at that today!

I spent an hour today just accessing some external bureau's analysis of my department results, through a security system that makes my bank look sloppy. All this to tell me what I already knew - girls last year out performed boys in my dept by 4%. God knows what this analysis costs the tax payer, but it has taken until December to officially get the figures I calculated for myself in 20 minutes in August. It just cost the taxpayer one hour of my professional time to download and print the ruddy thing.

And why? I dunno. The year before, boys out performed girls, and the year before that girls out performed boys again. I have to come up with answers and solutions, rather than spend my time concentrating on teaching a decent ruddy lesson!

Still, mustn't grumble.