ToastiestZombie said:
Lets face it, the British school system is a complete mess: we have people going to uni who don't need to, people who need serious help being grouped in with the rest of the students and we have so many people with degrees that jobs have become much harder to find for people who haven't got one. One thing that really hit me today was when some German kids came to our school for a school trip, and every one of them knew fluent English, I even had a lenghty conversation with one. Whereas in Britain, there is very little people who know any useful French or German by Year 8.
So escapees of Britain (preferably current students), what could the government do to improve the school system here.
I think that there should be much more training for teachers. The amount of teachers I had that would just hand out some sheet or a textbook then go to their computer and not even bother actually teaching us. Also, I think that teachers should be fired if they aren't doing a good job, I find it really sad when a really old and strict teacher gets to stay when a charismatic teacher that teaches in new and inventive ways always seem to go.
Well, english is the international language of trade and business, the simple fact that everyone who wants to go somewhere learns english says a lot for it's influance. English is one of the cases where you can generally get by being mono-lingual knowing it.
I'm one of those who has been pushing for English to become mandatory globally (it's getting close to that anyway) as a single, common language in of itself is going to be a great thing for communication and the spread of information. I don't care if people know others, but I think everyone should learn it. As far as it being unfair goes, it's in a position to make this viable, no other language really is.
That minor issue aside, the problem with the educational system and degrees is increasingly common to first world nations, where we are becoming victims of our own success so to speak. The US, Britan, etc... have the best educational systems and the best informed populations in the world, however being competitive societies this means that the competition occurs at an increasingly high level with the requirements for success going up as the average person obtains more and more in the way of general knowlege.
You might be saying "well, the US, Britan, and other first world powers lack in educational comparisons" but really that's not the case, such things are usually political stunts. For example China tends to rank highly, but the people they send to such things tend to be members of their educational elite, going up against the average student of other nations. In China, India, or other nations you generally don't see the factory workers, farmers, and menial labourers who live absolutly pathetic lives being trotted out as representitives and there are tons of them compared to the elite. In China for examle SARS got started due to people living with their livestock. As far as an overall average first world nations have their dregs, but even those people tend to be highly educated by global standards due to the way our system works... you can have guys with PHDs and Doctorates begging for change in the US for example. While there are some exceptions even your most pathetic bum likely has some high school education, and probably a couple years of college.
Overall I've been of the opinion that first world countries like the US and Britan need to dial back education somewhat, as shocking as that might sound. School is increasingly becoming about self validation, cultivating leadership skills, and similar things. Society needs far more workers than it does managers or highly skilled labour. In the US for example we produce far too many skilled workers and managers for the number of jobs, and due to the way they are conditioned nobody is willing to content themselves with very basic work. This contributes to things like illegal labour being hired due to so few people being willing to lure themselves down to their appropriate niche. Testing, and cultivating reasonable expectations based on that testing is probably not a bad idea.
As far as the issue with teachers go, well I tend to disagree there. In general a lot of the newer teachers coming in are more concerned with politics than education, and putting an increasingly liberal spin on things. To be honest I think historical re-inventionism and the like is one of the biggest problems we're dealing with right now, rather than a solution. Truthfully as more and more "new teachers" get involved I think the problems get worse, and honestly I have some serious concerns over what is going to happen with the educational system when the old guard that is holding it together is gone. Really what is needed is new teachers with old school attitudes.
That's my thoughts at any rate, but then again I'm from the US.