“Financial Times” article on Buckinghamshire education system
The following was an interesting article on the selective education system currently prevailing in Buckinghamshire.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/437ae8d6-39dc-11de-b82d-00144feabdc0.html
It is mildly critical by implication rather than explicitly. I am quoted in it although I would say I am passionately critical rather than passionately opposed. Why? Don’t get me started!
The system has been abolished throughout the rest of the country and as even David Cameron, supposedly the national Leader of the Conservative Party (the current party in power in Buckinghamshire) has said
“National selection was abolished because it was deeply unpopular with parents, who didn’t want their children to be divided into successes and failures at the age of eleven. That’s why in eighteen years of Conservative Government, neither Margaret Thatcher nor John Major created grammar schools. That’s why Conservative MPs and candidates in areas without grammar schools do not campaign for them to be brought back.”
Full speech can be found at http://bit.ly/n4H2V
Strange that the Bucks Tories cling to this “...looking to the past”. all the stats show that the majority of children do badly under this system, especially if the child is from a deprived back round or from the ethnic minorities.
I am not against Grammar schools but I am against the filter they use to select which is “Verbal Reasoning” a test that can be significantly affected by coaching and the fact that your child my have do badly in tests or be lacking in “verbal intelligence”. As asserted in the article, the selective system may be why we lost a whole generation of engineers as they invariably are not adept at verbal reasoning tests.
I have asked in council what they are testing for but never get a clear answer. Don’t forget the original system was based on the now thoroughly discredited theory of intelligence, which hardly anyone believes or subscribes to. All the data shows that wherever there is no selection, say the Scandinavian countries, the results however you wish to measure them are better, than more stratified systems. All the major parties recognise this, the Conservatives going so far as saying they will follow the model without recognising the non selective nature of the system.
Anyway read it and make up your own mind, I have done so much research on this subject that I am a bore on the subject, so don’t get me started!
Subscribe to the comments for this postPakistan at the Cross Roads
We have just returned from an extended holiday in Pakistan. The kids loved the village, the scenery is so extremely different from what they are used to that they found it amazing. The loved the fact that you could just wander about safely and that nearly everyone knew you. That cosy village mentality.
Our village is very lucky in that we are no where near anything important so we are left alone, but the rest of Pakistan is at a cross roads as the “Taliban” attempt a takeover. The question most asked in the West is how can the “Taliban” have any attraction? In my humble view the reason is a simple one, most of the institutions/services an ordinary citizen would expect from their government; security, health, education or infrastructure, are to a large extent non-existent. Health & education are only available if you pay for them, the roads are crumbling while electricity suffers from what is called “load shedding” - in effect power cuts - for up to 14 hours a DAY! As to security, the police are a self serving force apart from a small number of honest officers.
Therefore why shouldn’t an ordinary citizen look to someone who says “..we have the answers”. It is also amazing how until recently the establishment was in denial of the crisis. An example; in one of the major newspapers, page one had a report as to how the “Taliban” had taken responsibility for an attack on a police training camp, while on page 3 the Prime Minister and the NWFP Chief Minister were commending an agreement with the very same people.
This dichotomy is difficult to understand until you see how insulated the establishment is from the day to day difficulties of the average citizen. The really don’t have the day to day stresses of finding food, health, shelter. A great example is to visit Islamabad then visit Rawal Pindi and as my old lecturers used to say, compare and contrast.