Contributed by tedioustantrums
The new “Free Schools” are up and running then and the next batch being discussed. That sounds like progress although only time will tell. There’s likely to be some fall-out and bad experiences but that happens with any new initiative. Just as long as no children are harmed during the making of the “Free Schools” programme.
To some however, children are going to be harmed regardless. They don’t see the “Free Schools” project positively at all. You may have heard them on TV, the radio or in newspapers? I’ve heard a few comments. “Divisive” seems to be a word that’s popular for the Local Authority Education backers. They also claim the new schools will be “elitist”. They are even trying to go on the offensive to make sure parents don’t send their children to “Free Schools”.
It’s to be expected.
We already have different types of education available for our children. There are lots of different Independent Schools and it’s “you pays your money and your makes your choice”. Why not?
Maybe some people have forgotten or perhaps choose to forget that we are still fairly free. We are still allowed to hold opinions and we can think for ourselves. We still have a reasonable amount of self-determination. People can decide, within certain limits, where their children go to school.
Perhaps those who favour Local Authority governed education should spend time trying to improve those schools performances? After all there’s always room for improvement. Onwards and upwards and all that. In an ideal world schools should be sharing best practice anyway, regardless of which sector, religion, fee paying etc. etc. that would be fine if this was just about what’s best for children.
Our children are our greatest asset and we owe them the opportunity to be the best they can be. Education is their best chance to start moving in the right direction. That won’t suit them all but the school system should be able to cater for all manner of differing abilities and have differing teaching techniques to cope with that.
Politics should have no place in schools. It’s such a pity that education has become such a hot potato for politicians.
Posts
6 comments:
So, there's a free school within walking distance and a State school 10 miles away. No brainer!
Hi again Oldrightie.
I hope the Free Schools catch on just to provide a different otion for educating.
I think the education system in the UK died in 1972 when they scrapped the 11 plus and introduced Comprehensive education. Bright kids who would have been fast tracked via Academies were thrown to the wolves in poorly governed Comprehensives. They marked time and learnt nothing as the less bright were pandered to.
The system of University for the brightest and technical college for the less academic was thrown assunder.
The result was a lack of skilled tradesmen and an abundance of kids with useless degrees in meeja studies and some ology or another. Unable to spell or string a simple sentence together but proud holders of a degree. Pretty shocking but true.
So while our leaders rejoice in 50% of pupils getting a degree we are falling behind 3rd world countries in basic educational standards.
Social mobility has actually decreased because the ladders to mobility have been made steeper by huge fees in England and a watering down of the usefulness of degrees to the commercial and industrial sector in the UK.
Couldn't agree more RMcG.
One size fits all never works. The waste of potential for all those pupils and students... doesn't bear thinking about.
And there is the problem Old Rightie. As they cut back on more and more schools they actually get further and further away from more and more pupils homes.
This is because here in Scotland we subsidise separate Catholic Schools as it is and because they keep this stupid devisive wasteful system it means that some areas have Catholic pupils or non-denominational pupils travelling miles to another area just to learn to read and write.
It would be more sensible and cost effective to have all the pupils going to a single school in one area just now instead of wasting even more money on even more seperate schools all over the place.
No wonder human beings need two and a half planets to live off just now when you see stupid things like this being proposed.
There is no just case for having seperate schools based on religion, Billy. If people want seperate religious schools then the religion should completely pay for it.
However, I'd go further and only allow religious schools to open in the evenings and weekends.
All children of school age would have to attend non-denominational schools.
Post a Comment