Crikey!

So once more the country rejoices to the news of record 'A' and 'O' level results, OK I know they are called GCSEs, but they are 'O' levels to me. So what is really happening on our education system that every year results seem to get better and better. Are the examinations easier? Is the pass mark being artificially lowered so that 45% correct now means you get an A? Do teachers coach rather than teach these days, and is internet plagiarism and assignment co-operation leading to learning by rote.

Teaching is a peculiar profession. Many times I have been involved in discussions about the difficulty of teaching children, and I would be the first to admit that more and more parents acquiesce all moral and disciplinary responsibility to teachers. Teachers in turn are restricted in the disciplinary measures they can use, and hence the education system turns out, or fails more and more 'latchkey' kids as I would call them. The tragic incident in Croxteth yesterday being the extreme result of such a breakdown.

Going back to basic education though, worryingly the latest figures show that the number of children with adequate English and maths qualifications is dropping and is approaching a level of less than 50%. Now if we are producing that level of numeracy and grammar after 11 years of teaching a child, then the system really does need looking at.

I have referred before to the levelling of the educational playing field under the Blair administration, maybe the old adage that a teacher with 15 years experience really only has one years experience duplicated 15 times, is coming back to haunt us. I don't know the answer, but parental control, discipline at school, and respect for other people, have to be drilled into our kids at an early age, and re-enforced as they grow up. Only then will educational standards be judged as having improved and such improvements will be universally welcomed and applauded.

Am I Bovvered?

Schools are in the news again today with details of new stop and search powers being vested in teachers. It is a sad reflection on the breakdown of school/pupil/parent relations, a situation which can be traced back to several things. Undoubtedly the abolition of corporal punishment was the thin end of the wedge, relaxing the grip which teachers had on pupil discipline during school hours. This was followed by a trend for more families to have two bread winners, and introduced the term 'latch key kids' into society. Children were forced to entertain themselves after school, often in an antisocial way. Finally the removal of the selection process at 11-plus stage grouped all and sundry into comprehensive or community college systems while marginalising the Grammar School system.

David Cameron this week has also indicated his approach to eduction by further distancing government from the Grammar School system, in an effort to attract the blue collar, lower socio-economic voter to his party.

One of Tony Blairs legacies will be that which brainwashed kids and parents into thinking all 'little Johnnies' were bright and intelligent people capable of becoming captains of industry. He introduced uniformity into Polytechnics and Universities in the same way as with the secondary education system in years past.

Unfortunately re branding Polytechnics as University's, diminished their technical and trade status reduced the number of children learning core artisan skills or undertaking apprenticeships. Lets be fair here, plumbers, brickies and electricians these days can name their price for remedial work, and a good carpenter is worth their weight in gold, so it certainly isn't second class citizen work is it?

Many things in society go full circle, often because parents reject the system they evolved under and look at something different for their children. Here's hoping that will be the case as far as education and discipline is concerned, as some sort of intellectual hierarchy is re-introduced and parents become more accountable for, and proud of their children's achievements.