Welcome to the Boomerang Generation

ash28

ruggedtoast wrote: »

The majority of universities that exist now are ex-polytechnics. These were functionally the same as universities except they couldn't award their own qualifications.

Plenty of boomers went to polytechnics for two or three years, had an experience that was indistinguishable from a university education, received a living expense grant and didnt pay a penny for tuition fees.

You would think from reading the comments on this board that there were only 7 places in higher education for the entire baby boomer generation, and the rest of them were all self educated and had no help whatsoever.

This is complete rubbish. If you had average A levels you could go away to study at 18 and not pay a penny and millions of people did. Its a shame a few more of them werent a bit more vocal when the rug was pulled from under current students rather than making facile comments about iPhones when the average student loan debt equates to hundreds of the things.

Your average boomer was written off educationally by the age of 11. The vast majority of boomers went to a secondary modern school and the highest level of qualification available was a CSE (no use to man nor beast) and not every one was able to take those - 6th form - secondary moderns didn't have them but as GCEs weren't an option it didn't matter anyway.

So the vast majority of boomers did not have GCEs let alone A levels - most boomers who went into higher education either went as part of employer training on day release or evening classes.

.

ruggedtoast

ash28 wrote: »

Your average boomer was written off educationally by the age of 11. The vast majority of boomers went to a secondary modern school and the highest level of qualification available was a CSE (no use to man nor beast) and not every one was able to take those - 6th form - secondary moderns didn't have them but as GCEs weren't an option it didn't matter anyway.

So the vast majority of boomers did not have GCEs let alone A levels - most boomers who went into higher education either went as part of employer training on day release or evening classes.

.

Well you'll all be happy to pass a better world onto your children then.

Oh no, wait...

ukcarper

ash28 wrote: »

Your average boomer was written off educationally by the age of 11. The vast majority of boomers went to a secondary modern school and the highest level of qualification available was a CSE (no use to man nor beast) and not every one was able to take those - 6th form - secondary moderns didn't have them but as GCEs weren't an option it didn't matter anyway.

So the vast majority of boomers did not have GCEs let alone A levels - most boomers who went into higher education either went as part of employer training on day release or evening classes.

.

I went to a secondary modern in the 60s and you could take O Levels about 25% of my year stayed on till 16 and took O Levels and CSEs.

CLAPTON

Don't of course believe all you read in wikipeadia but it says:

A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed in most of the United Kingdom from 1944 until the early 1970s, under the Tripartite System, and was designed for the majority of pupils - those who do not achieve scores in the top 25% of the eleven plus examination

and


Movement towards a comprehensive system
Although the Butler Act planned a parity of esteem between this and the other sections of the tripartite system, in practice the secondary modern came to be seen as the school for failures. Those who had "failed" their eleven plus were sent there to learn rudimentary skills before advancing to factory or menial jobs. Secondary moderns prepared students for the CSE examination, rather than the more prestigious O level, and although training for the latter was established in later years, less than one in ten students took advantage of it. Secondary moderns did not offer schooling for the A level, and in 1963, for instance, only 318 former secondary modern pupils sat A levels. None went on to university.
Secondary moderns were generally deprived of both resources and good teachers. The Newsom Report of 1963 reported on education for these children, and found that in some schools in slum areas of London 15-year old pupils were sitting on furniture intended for primary schools. Staff turnover was high and continuity in teaching minimal. Not all secondary moderns were as bad, but they did generally suffer from neglect by authorities.
The poor performance of the ‘submerged three quarters’ of British schoolchildren led to calls for reform. Experiments with comprehensive schools began in the 1950s, hoping to provide an education that would offer greater opportunities for those who did not enter grammar schools. Several counties, such as Leicestershire, eliminated their secondary moderns altogether. In 1965, the Labour government issued Circular 10/65, implementing the Comprehensive System. By 1976, with the exception of a few regions, such as Kent, Dorset, Buckinghamshire, Stoke, Slough, the Wirral and Ripon, secondary modern schools had been formally phased out.

Graham_Devon

I'm starting to come round to the idea of feeling quite sorry for Boomers.

Life appears to have been completely wicked towards them. No one else should even have the audacity to mutter under their breath about any problems facing them, as nothing compares to just how savage the life of a boomer has been.

CLAPTON

Graham_Devon wrote: »

I'm starting to come round to the idea of feeling quite sorry for Boomers.

Life appears to have been completely wicked towards them. No one else should even have the audacity to mutter under their breath about any problems facing them, as nothing compares to just how savage the life of a boomer has been.

Why not just accept that each generation has to deal with the situation of the time rather than generating a divisive blame culture.
We currently have a variety of issues and problems and we need to all work together to deal with.

Quite simple really.

Graham_Devon

CLAPTON wrote: »

Why not just accept that each generation has to deal with the situation of the time rather than generating a divisive blame culture.
We currently have a variety of issues and problems and we need to all work together to deal with.

Quite simple really.

Why pick me up on it? Pick your fellow boomers up on their iphone slagging off etc.

wotsthat

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Why pick me up on it? Pick your fellow boomers up on their iphone slagging off etc.

It's nice to see you taking the high ground and avoiding such generalisations though.

What's up? Bad day?

ukcarper

Graham_Devon wrote: »

I'm starting to come round to the idea of feeling quite sorry for Boomers.

Life appears to have been completely wicked towards them. No one else should even have the audacity to mutter under their breath about any problems facing them, as nothing compares to just how savage the life of a boomer has been.

I wouldn’t feel to sorry for us we faced problems as do younger people just not the same problems. What I object to is being told how good we had and all the problems of today are down to us.

ash28

ukcarper wrote: »

I went to a secondary modern in the 60s and you could take O Levels about 25% of my year stayed on till 16 and took O Levels and CSEs.

The two I went to also in the 1960s - you couldn't take GCEs - you had CSEs or nothing - most left with nothing. Perhaps they were all different and I was just unfortunate in where we lived.