Graham Allen, Labour MP for Nottingham North, said: "I work with my secondary heads and they say that the raw material they are sent at age 11 is not good enough, therefore I go on to my primary heads and they say children arrive at school unable to read or recognise the difference between a letter or a number, they arrive sometimes in nappies, unable to speak in a sentence."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20043225You mean we are expected to send our (sometimes just turned) 4 years old to school already knowing how to READ and recognise numbers? Does he even know the school starting age in the UK? Sure some children can read before they start but I am incredulous to think that THAT is now an EXPECTATION!
Good grief!
And of course some children can't speak in sentences. Specific Language Impairment (affecting children from non-chaotic loquacious households too!) is arguably THE most common specific learning difficulty.
I am not at all trying to deny that there is a real underbelly to society whose children and parents really need help but this MP is an idiot, no?