What do you think of the UK education system?

clairestokoe

This Facebook Poll looks at how other countries might see our education system, based on the rising costs etc.

http://apps.facebook.com/opinionpolls/poll?pid=AB7fJ8Q53fE

mountainofdebt

carp, absolute carp.

Students are leaving school, barely able to string a sentence together.

A levels examinations are manipulated so that grades are inflated.

Anyone who is not academically minded might as well have 2nd class citzen stamped on their forehead as apprenticeships (if they can be won) are not valued.

pineapple

Oh dear this is getting me on my hobby horse. I'm 61 and when I went to school, 'A' grades were 'A' grades and were not given out like smarties. This is not doing anyone any favours. We are even turning out graduates who can't spell.
Not only that but it doesn't seem education has progressed much in terms of preparing people for the practicalities of life.

Stephen_Leak

From my 4 years working as an IT technician in an urban state secondary school, I could only describe it as casting artificial pearls in front of real swine. I fear for the future.

Derivative

On the subject of exams and grading:

I got 100% of the marks available in three or four of my A-level papers.
Does this make me a genius? No, the marks are moderated up and the exams are dumbed down, making it impossible for Universities to select the best candidates accurately.

On the subject of University access:

Top tier Universities are being asked to widen access, through positive discrimination for lower achieving (read: state) schools. Instead of tackling the problem at source, we bemoan the universities for selecting the best students on offer to them.

On the subject of funding:

My local council are currently in the process of renovating school buildings - essentially, they looked a bit ugly before.
http://www.esteem.cc/news/24-11-11.php

£400m spent there.

Back of the envelope time. 800k teachers/teaching assistants in UK, source
http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000787/index.shtml

Hull population 270k. UK population 62.3m.
If we say teachers are in the same proportion, then Hull has roughly 3500 teachers. We have about 90 schools, some of which are fairly small, so the number seems fairly good - I'm not sure of staff levels at most schools.

The £400m shared amongst those 3500 teachers/support staff would give each £115,000.

So you could basically bump teaching salaries by £7k or so for 15 years based on this improvement work, subject to some niggles in my calculations.

I am currently studying at University and would love to become a teacher. I also take an interest in finance, thanks in part to this site.
One of these careers pays fairly well. The other one pays hardly anything.

I'll leave you to figure out why teaching in our state schools is subpar.

DVardysShadow

mountainofdebt wrote: »

carp, absolute carp.

Students are leaving school, barely able to string a sentence together.

A levels examinations are manipulated so that grades are inflated.

Anyone who is not academically minded might as well have 2nd class citzen stamped on their forehead as apprenticeships (if they can be won) are not valued.

I agree 100%. There is a type of boy who should be allowed to leave school at 14 if he can get an apprenticeship. And such apprenticeships should be valued by society as a whole. It is people who do and make things who create wealth. Bankers have long passed the threshold of facilitating wealth creation - for 85% of that industry, the only skill is to siphon off wealth for themselves. Hence we get into a flat spin when it appears that the financial flows may bypass us. But if we have a population which is able to make things, we won't need to live in fear of being bypassed.

TrickyWicky

I think its all trash.

Every year the exam results come in and if we have too many passes, the system has become too easy, if there are too many failures the system has become too hard.

It happens every year and just goes to prove that the system is so corrupt it changes with public attitude. Thats not right, the exams should be of the same standard every year and if you're good enough you pass. If you're crap, didn't revise, didn't give a **** then you fail.

None of this matters anymore though since the UK is now in such a mess for always taking the easy way through everything that we probably won't recover for 20 odd years. I read an article in the sun a few weeks back saying the UK is now worthless - the government owns more debt than it does assets that are worth peanuts in comparison.

Everytime any UK government runs into trouble it takes the easy way out - short term planning, screw the people over and then go back to bed with the bankers. If only we could do what China, Japan and other middle eastern countries do and PLAN FOR THE FUTURE on a LONG TERM BASIS then our school leavers might have half a chance.

**Juice**

What annoys me is that every year when results come out it's "oh it's so easy now, a donkey could pass"...why then are people leaving school with no GCSE's or a lot of ungraded? It must feel awful to have not passed, but to have everyone saying how easy it is :-(

Derivative

**Juice** wrote: »

What annoys me is that every year when results come out it's "oh it's so easy now, a donkey could pass"...why then are people leaving school with no GCSE's or a lot of ungraded? It must feel awful to have not passed, but to have everyone saying how easy it is :-(

I came out of school with pretty bad GCSE results - scraped the 5A*-C and got a few ungraded.

That said, I went to one of the worst schools in the country and had no aspirations. I did better in sixth form once I'd realised I'd be severely limiting my options otherwise.

It doesn't matter how easy an exam is - if you're not motivated, have no course materials and have bad teachers or a home environment that makes it difficult to revise, you're going to come out badly.

The driving test is fairly easy to pass if you know what you're doing - people still fail due to lack of preparation or nerves.

adindas

The school children are know too spoil, due to pressure that have been given to by the politicians the teachers. A level result could be simply make it better if you are asking the teacher to do that ....

The politicians are only see the impact of their policies on their votes not to children or society. You could always win the vote by using children .....

Look at how many A level schools leavers are good at math do not say about powers, roots, reasonable number of them are even can not do multiplication and division, ....

Compare it to students in Asian Countries ...

I am afraid here we are witnessing the race between the tortoise and the hare ....

mountainofdebt wrote: »

carp, absolute carp.

Students are leaving school, barely able to string a sentence together.

A levels examinations are manipulated so that grades are inflated.

Anyone who is not academically minded might as well have 2nd class citzen stamped on their forehead as apprenticeships (if they can be won) are not valued.

DVardysShadow

adindas wrote: »

The school children are know too spoil, due to pressure that have been given to by the politicians the teachers. A level result could be simply make it better if you are asking the teacher to do that ....

The politicians are only see the impact of their policies on their votes not to children or society. You could always win the vote by using children .....

Look at how many A level schools leavers are good at math do not say about powers, roots, reasonable number of them are even can not do multiplication and division, ....

Compare it to students in Asian Countries ...

I am afraid here we are witnessing the race between the tortoise and the hare ....

This are good contributions. Is say quite clearly about Math equally to English. Compare to students in Asian Countries, English Student is not write proper English also.