Failing our Kids

Hi

In spite of the vast amounts of money we spend on education, we still aren't cutting it.

We have youngsters leaving the system who are so illiterate that they have trouble finding a job.

Thus also affects our productivity, which is terrible compared to other Countries.

There is a link here.

http://discover.economist.com/?a=216...BR-LIT&cid3=UM

Any ideas about what we can do?

These youngsters are basically condemned to a life on minimum wage.

What a waste.

Re: Failing our Kids

I recall seeing a newspaper article only the other day wherein a comparison was made between academies and local authority controlled schools. Strangely enough the local authority schools were dong much better than academies. Notwithstanding this, the 'nasty party' are now wanting all schools to be academies. A case of the ignorant leading the gullible.

Re: Failing our Kids

Serving as an apprentice Fitter and Turner back in the sixties I was allowed to go to college on day release to learn the Theory side to Engineering. In the factory where I worked there were several 'Old Blokes' who had spent their lives working with metal and machines. I learned more from these 'Old Blokes' in one day than I could have learned in a month at college. Skills passed down from generation to generation. Sadly there are no more 'Old Blokes' left and I, and many other skilled Fitters and Machinists are now retired or have left the industry. Who will teach our young people these skills now?

I'm not just talking Engineers, but Plumbers, Joiners, Electricians, the list goes on.
There are some things that cannot be taught in school or university. There are people who were destined to work with their hands (and I have met some brilliant Engineers who were failures academically) but there is nobody to take them under their wings.
This then is our failing to our kids......Just pack em' off to University, at least they won't figure on the lists of the unemployed. At least, not until they are too old to learn a trade.

Re: Failing our Kids

Hi

UJ, this problem has been going on for years, irrespective of which Party has been in power.

I am not bothered who caused it, what happened in the past, what is happening now.

What I am concerned about is that it is a problem which needs to be resolved, and would welcome suggestions from anyone on how to resolve it, irrespective of their Politics.

Re: Failing our Kids

It atounds me that any child unless it has serious learning disabilities can sit through 12 years of compulsory education and come out illiterate .
How is this possible?

Re: Failing our Kids

I think that the less academic young people feel that school is entirely geared to academia - with good reason - and that there is nothing for them there. It was a great pity that the more technical courses, as well as apprenticeships - took a downward dive in the last 30 years or so. However, lately there has been renewed interest in apprenticeships, and there is a government website to help people find one. https://www.gov.uk/apply-apprenticeship

Re: Failing our Kids

Oh the more it changes,the more it stays the same. I was dragged up in a little village where boys went to the iron works or the brick yards and girls did secretarial work. I went on to university and after that into such things as YOP,YTS etc-yes I was a civil servant. The same stuff was talked about training/educating children back in the 80s as now

Re: Failing our Kids

Less academic does not mean illiterate .
Is a child is illiterate it's means they cannot read or write .

These children are coming from areas of low employment
Perhaps from families that have never known employment so this will be the pattern they have learned to form being young.

People don't like to step out of their comfort zone even if it isn't comfortable .

They need more than schools to enter a working society they need positive encouragement from their family .

Or they have the opposite family life is so poor that it motivates them to move and strive to survive elsewhere.

Re: Failing our Kids

I think one of the problems is some parents who do not spend enough time doing things with their children.
No matter how poor you are you can still take children for walks and talk to them about their surroundings also borrow books from the library.

I was speaking to a teacher friend not long ago who was shocked how many children when starting school were monosyllabic and couldn't hold a conversation, not the best foundation for learning. Some were incapable of sitting still at a table and listening to a teacher.

Re: Failing our Kids

Because they are all hypnotised by their tablets !