Sort Out The Government's Failings

[DodgyAgent]

To be fair, the government has wider plans than that: for example to have private schools lend equipment and teachers to the state schools.

good idea all those private schools with teachers sitting around doing nothing all day. govts will then be free to sell more playing fields to get more money to spend on keeping more people dependent on the state

[Bagpuss]

Were the kids we turned out of schools 20 years ago as bad as they are today?

I like to think not

[Euro-commuter]

Funnily enough many teachers at private schools would not be allowed to teach in state schools as they do not have the relevant qualifications, and vica versa. For example: many private school teachers do not have a teaching qualification, and many state school teachers are not qualified in the subjects they teach. Which basically explains the vast difference in educational attainment of two sets of students.

The difference in attainment is explained by the much lower pupil/teacher ration in private schools: this is normally the major thing that you buy when you send chilren to a private school. The farce is the idea that you could then make things "fairer'" by taking some of that excess teacher time and giving it to state schools.

[Rantor]

I like to think not

I've always been sceptical at the onward n' upward results but is there any evidence that kids leaving school are fiker than wot we was?

I had a look at the OECD stuff and it doesn't really give a clear idea one way or the other.

Anecdotally, some of them can appear as thick as mince due to how they were taught. I had two, very bright, graduates working for me a few years ago and the could not write a grammatical sentence as they came from that generation who simply didn't get taught any grammar. It was especially amusing to the many dutch/scandinavians on that project who could write grammatical english.

[threaded]

The difference in attainment is explained by the much lower pupil/teacher ration in private schools: this is normally the major thing that you buy when you send chilren to a private school. The farce is the idea that you could then make things "fairer'" by taking some of that excess teacher time and giving it to state schools.

I think I was trying to say that a fancy teaching qualification is about as useful as one in basket weaving when it comes to teaching, and possibly counterproductive. What is most important is that the teacher actually know and have a love of the subject they are teaching. Lower pupil/teacher ratio is a bit of a myth. The ratio of adults to children in a classroom in the state schools is higher. There just appears a better ratio for private because a boarding school has teachers on site 24/7. Ahh, such fun to be had when you peel off the layers of the New Lie government statistics.

[wendigo100]

I had two, very bright, graduates working for me a few years ago and the could not write a grammatical sentence as they came from that generation who simply didn't get taught any grammar.

This, and the lack of basic mathematical ability, is what universities now complain about with each year's new intakes.

I guess that 30 years ago you simply wouldn't be offered a university place unless you were reasonably competent, although I can't remember because in those days we all took that fact for granted.

Unless you did sociology of course - which was the equivalent of media studies or sports management in the seventies.