In my role as the Mayor's Youth Ambassador I meet a lot of people involved in the education, training and employment of young adults. There is a lot of frustration in this sector.
Many of these people are far from being natural Tories and some are very explicitly left wing but the message that I get back is that the UK education system is failing.
Every year we have the argument about the validity and quality of A level A grades. This missed the elephant in the room which is that almost half of the UK's children struggle to the 5 good GCSEs which is the benchmark for educational adequacy.
I talk to many children who haven't got formal qualifications and we don't have an epidemic of stupidity sweeping the nation. So there really is only one place that the blame can fall.
Compared to the nations we are increasingly competing with our education system isn't good enough and to pretend it is is to betray our children. There has been a conspiracy of silence about the failings of much of our education system in which the education establishment and the government have been complicit.
There are of course pockets of true excellence in the private, selective and comprehensive sectors, but quality isn't as wide spread as it should be.
David Cameron and Michael Gove are right to propose a radical shift in the quality, quantity and diversity of education provision. Too few families have any real choice in their childs school, poor teachers cannot be removed and good teachers cannot be properly rewarded.
All this has to change if we are going to give or children the best chance in what is already a tough world stage. But more than this, education is the greatest driver to social mobility, crime reduction and the ability to make choices in later life.
Making teaching an elite profession is a precursor to success, all the new paint and IT suites will not offset a lack of well educated, well motivated, and well rewarded teachers.
We have to be bold, our children deserve nothing less.
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4 comments:
Can this really be the same party that spent the 1980s sacking my teachers, refusing to increase their pay to a decent graduate salary, increasing class sizes, cancelling milk, and reducing the proportion of GDP spent on state education?
Teaching was completely ruined as a profession in the 1980s and only in the last ten years have teachers started the get the pay and respect that they deserve. If you want to see a failing education system don't look at the UK today, look at it 20 years ago.
It is no good complaining that less than 50% of children get 5 GCSE grades A-C. What was in when the Conservatives were in power - much lower. Every year we see improved GCSE results and this is not just about them getting easier, it is about a better education system for all British children, not just those rich enough to afford private education (generously supported by the government through charitable status).
Everybody in this country knows that if you want a good education system for all you don't vote Conservative, unless we really do have an epidemic of stupidity sweeping the nation.
The main issue that this country's education system has faced over the last 20 to 30 years is the prolifreation of teachers with left wing views. Generations of children have suffered through their teaching methods and attempts to rewrite history.
Having said that, the last thirteen years of Labour government has dumbed down education in this country to a new low!
Results are going up year on year and the exams are set by independent exam boards.
If the bankers, politicians and business people were half as successful and competent as we teachers are, this country would still be great
Bring in performance related pay and backdate it ten years. I'd be retiring at the end of August.
If only education could be taken out of the hands of politicians (along with some other functions). Especially politicians with no memory of what their party did when it 'looked after' education.
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