Blair Failed on His Promise

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What_a_Let_Down

Blair Failed on His Promise

Post by What_a_Let_Down »

Heard on the news that parents sending their children to private schools has gones up by 40% since the wonderful Mr Blair came to office. He promised education, education, education. Instead, we have private, private, private. If I could afford it, I woud do the same ! for my children. Unfortuantely, unlike Europe and USA, we are unable to plan for bad mangement, just like the NHS vs BUPA debate. What he has done is pour money into poor schools to raise standards, but has made good schools better, which means that paresnts such as me

a) don't have a real choice for selecting a school, even though the forms provide between 3 and 5 choice, depending which part of the country

b) You can't move to better area, becuase we are priced out of the housing market

Where do we stand?

Thanks Mr Blair !
Mike
Posts: 625
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2006 4:29 pm

Post by Mike »

Hi

Would I be right in saying that all children in the UK receive free education until they are nineteen years old.

Don´t you think that the dependency culture that places responsibility on the government to educate children, conveniently takes that responsibility away from parents.

As I recall the speech, Mr Blair did not say Quality Education, Equal Education and in the case of universities Free Education.

If you are not happy with the government you could always DIY, see if you can do a better job yourself.

Also, there is no choice in selecting schools and with the exception of a small period of time never has been. Parents are asked to give a preference for the school they wish their child to attend.

Neither education or lack of it affects the housing market and it is incorrect to assume that areas with good schools all have higher house prices. In the case of the Wirral and surrounding areas you can buy a three bedroom semi-detached property for less that 150000 pounds and send your child to a choice of top performing grammar or independent schools if they pass the entrance tests.

Regards

Mike
sj355
Posts: 1149
Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:07 pm
Location: Finchley - Barnet

Post by sj355 »

After the intitial euphoria of learning that my son passed his grammar school entry exams I had an apparent continuation of good news, as my husband told me that the old gentleman that comes to do with my son advanced maths once per week concluded recently that as my kid did no mistakes in some intermediate GGSE exam papers he did with him, he would move on with him to a more advanced level. (The majority of his private tutorials involves teaching A level Maths and Ancient Greek to 16 & 17 year olds).

I was impressed, but after that euphoria fizzled out as well, I started to wonder whether this says something about how clever my kid is, or rather about how easy the GCSE exams have become.

I had a look to sample of recent intermediate GCSE exams and the latter seems to be the truth. It esentially involves nothing more than doing percentages, re-arranging formulas as well as solving simple equations, simultaneous equations and inequalities! I was horrified!!

To this add the recent news in the papers which compared the assessment exam faced by an applicant to study Maths in a UK university and the equivalent assesement test faced by its Chinese counterpart. The first is essentially an application the pythagorian theorem as compared with the Chinese test involving answering questions on a mind- boggling prism shape.

To conclude, yes Mike, having no choice apart from stating your preferences is not new. Having selective eduation is not new either. Doing DIY is for most not an option since they have to go out and earn a living plus in most cases they are not qualified either (although as the standards continue to fall they will eventually become qualified!). On the other hand, setting such low standards of learning for our kids that consitently places them at the bottom of the OECD education league tables is an apparently rather new and much worrying trend!

So yes, education is free, but what kind of education??
sj355
also disappointed

Post by also disappointed »

Well that depends what you mean by education, Mike. If, as even the teachers at our local comp will admit, there is virtually no actual learning going on in class, rather a fraught and noisy attempt at class control where no one, neither pupils nor teachers feels physically safe, then I don't think there is.

As for Blair not promising "Quality" education, that is semantics. In saying education three times he was clearly indicating that his intention was to improve significantly the situation. He has not. His phrase also implied it would be his priority. It has not been. The tragic and shameful Iraq war will be his legacy, not education. A 40 per cent increase in the private sector says it all.

And as for house prices. Well £150,000 is alot of money which many people haven't got. Nor should we have to play monopoly to secure a basic, decent education for our kids.
sj355
Posts: 1149
Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:07 pm
Location: Finchley - Barnet

Post by sj355 »

[
I had a look to sample of recent intermediate GCSE exams and the latter seems to be the truth. It esentially involves nothing more than doing percentages, re-arranging formulas as well as solving simple equations, simultaneous equations and inequalities! I was horrified!!

Just to show you I am not exaggerating, take this one:

Sue teaches years 9-11. She taught 310 lessons last term. 30% were year 9 lessons. 20% were year 10 lessons. The rest were year 11 lessons. Find the number of year 11 lessons that Sue taugh last term.


Good grief!!
sj355
sj355
Posts: 1149
Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:07 pm
Location: Finchley - Barnet

Post by sj355 »


Just to show you I am not exaggerating, take this one:

Sue teaches years 9-11. She taught 310 lessons last term. 30% were year 9 lessons. 20% were year 10 lessons. The rest were year 11 lessons. Find the number of year 11 lessons that Sue taugh last term.


Good grief!!
And another one:

The length of the longer side in a rectangle is x cm. Solve this equation to find x.

x^2-5x-36=0.

:lol:
sj355
Mike
Posts: 625
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2006 4:29 pm

Post by Mike »

Hi

I think Blair was voted in more than once after making his education, education, education speech by the democratic processes that exist in the UK whereby a party with less than 50% support of the electorate manages to get into power.

If proportional representation existed in the UK the people of the UK would be represented better.

Also if compulsory voting existed more people would feel franchised into the system.

It seems to me that instead of the children getting educated, it is the parents who have been.

There has never been equality in education and never will be.

Those parents on low incomes who make sacrifices for their cildren expect their children to reap the benefits of a better education in the future.

Remember that Mr & Mrs Megarich who send their children to expensive private schools do not have the choice of opting out from paying into the UK tax system.

Education is not free and never has been, nor is the NHS or state benefit system. Someone, somehow, somewhere pays.

Here´s a hypothetical situation that is not far from the truth.

Approximately 100,000 leave the UK permanently each year. Lets say that each of them sells a property in the UK or uses a llump sum pension or receives payment from a matured endowment policy.

Anyway, lets average the figure to 100,000 pounds per person.

That is 1,000,000,000,000 pounds.

A large percentage of the people leaving the country are pensioners who have their pensions paid directly to their new home abroad.

Let´s say half of them and they receive pension benefits of say 10,000 pounds per year, don´t want to exagerate!!

That is 500,000,000 pounds per year, all being spent in a little corner shop somewhere else in the world.

In Spain Council Tax is practically non-existent, particularly in rural locations. A litre bottle of decent brandy costs less than 8 euro, a litre of lager costs 35p, a litre of diesel 70p. Improvements in the infrastructure is progressing at a phenomenal rate, particularly in the education sector where UK citizens receive free Spanish or Catalan lessons.

As Spain has received far more money from the EU than they have contributed and the reverse can be said for the UK we can conclude that the UK taxpayer has paid a considerable sum for advances in Spain.

I would say that the educated person should consider leaving the UK as soon as possible, and could the last person out please close the door!!

Regards

Mike
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Post by Guest55 »

Intermediate level is aimed at grades E to B - 2007 is the last year it is beng examined.

The first question is about grade E - the quadratic is probably a C - they don't need the formula at intermediate. You have to score about 75% to get a B.

Most schools want a B at Higher for A level as the algebraic content of Intermediate is not sufficient preparation for A level.
sj355
Posts: 1149
Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:07 pm
Location: Finchley - Barnet

Post by sj355 »

I have late in the day realised that the GCSE is modular (when did this happen? The famous O levels and A levels we took abroad did not use to be!)
This must be the first place in the world where you have modular paper addressed to the dim , the less dim and the acceptable (a look at the Higher convinced me that the latter is OK but more on a KS3 sense, nothing fancy). Usually modular means covering different aspects of Maths (or anything else) in different exams (I am fine with that, but not different levels of easiness).

Mike: there is nothing political about this issue Mike. It is just a sinister process by the ruling elite (who more or less consists of the same people) of slowly adapting the masses into a lack of ambition via a lack of basic knowledge (numeracy and literacy). When did the GCSE and the A levels became easy? Why? It can not be that people are more dim today than they used to be!
Intermediate level is aimed at grades E to B - 2007 is the last year it is beng examined. The first question is about grade E - the quadratic is probably a C - they don't need the formula at intermediate. You have to score about 75% to get a B.
A sixteen year old who may never do Maths again in his life has to get 75% to get a B at Inter??? I must have a word with my colleagues about re-introducing the A level in Maths for entry to Economics! We can not have people that at the very best have a good knowledge of KS3 getting into a subject that is increasingly quantitative. No wonder we have to do remedial maths for the students , not only in their first, but also in their second year.

Most schools want a B at Higher for A level as the algebraic content of Intermediate is not sufficient preparation for A level.
You can say that again!
sj355
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Post by Guest55 »

sj355,

Not all Maths GCSEs are modular - very few schools in Buckinghamshire take that route -
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