EDUCATION SYSTEM

According to the Government's exams advisers, pupils should mark their own class work and decide what their school tests should cover. Teachers should train secondary school children to set their homework and devise mark schemes, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority said. Pupils should then assess the results, grading their own efforts and giving "feedback" to their classmates. The QCA, which devised the new secondary curriculum, said such an approach helps children support each other and develop independent study skills.

The guidelines suggested teachers in schools that decide to adopt the system would need to train pupils in marking techniques. The "strategies" for developing pupils' peer assessment skills could include asking pupils in groups to write five questions on a topic and, following a class discussion, pick the two best questions from each group. Then learners should attempt to answer all the selected questions for homework. They should analyse mark schemes, devise their own for a specified task and mark each other's work but not give out answers. Asking pupils, instead, to find the correct answers from available resources.

The QCA proposed that pupils should also be involved in drawing up internal school tests and assessment tasks, which are separate from the official National Curriculum "Sats" tests and GCSEs. The QCA said one way to help pupils develop would be to "encourage learners to develop assessment criteria for periodic assessment tasks". The QCA's guidance said the approach had "fundamental implications for the learning ethos in a school" and should be adopted across all subjects areas. Teachers will need to be trained in how to help pupils adapt to the self-assessment system. (Source: Daily Mail, Sep/07)

It was announced that Greece and South Korea have better education systems than Britain. Greece, for crying out loud. This is a country that takes a vine, throws the grapes away, eats the leaves and makes its wine out of creosote. And Korea. Five years ago they thought an ox was hi-tech. Thirty years ago our schools were the 13th best in the world. Now we have slumped to 22nd. The report said we don’t spend enough, our class sizes are too big, too many children leave school at 16 and kids don’t have enough time in the classroom.

And how did the Government respond? Well, on the very same day the report was published, it announced an extra £50million was to be spent encouraging children to cycle or walk to school. An army of 250 “travel advisors” will be appointed to monitor progress and offer advice. And secondary schools will be given around £10,000 each to help improve cycle facilities. Brilliant. We may turn out an Olympic-class cyclist ready for the games in Athens. But the poor sod will be so daft he won’t know where Greece is or how to get there.

When His Tonyness was campaigning in the 1997 election, I distinctly remember him saying his main priorities were “Education, education, education”. He was right. I know that football and naked women are more interesting. I know that school was something you endured years ago and so it doesn’t matter any more. But it does. Nothing matters more. Unless schools are set up to encourage the disadvantaged and bring out the best in the bright, you can forget about Britain being a force in the world or even a force in Europe.

You only have to look at television and radio quiz shows to understand the scale of the problem. I heard someone the other day asked to name two counties which border Devon. “Yorkshire and the Falkland Islands” was her answer. Just recently, when a contestant was asked to name the capital of Italy, he said “France”. And then, when given another go, he came up with “Benidorm”. And on The Weakest Link recently one of the panel said that an island in the Indian Ocean, named after the date of its discovery, December 25th, 1643, was “Guam”. And these, remember, are people who consider themselves well enough educated to appear in front of millions on a quiz show.

How many people out there would struggle with their own name? Just this week some railway engineers forgot to replace a five-foot section of track and an express train leaving Kings Cross station was derailed as a result. How did that happen? How can you leave a job thinking, “Right. That’s that done,” when there’s a bloody great hole in the railway line? You have got to be monumentally stupid. And if we don’t sort out the schooling system, the problem will spread. Soon we’ll be reading about a surgeon who took someone’s heart out in a transplant and forgot to put the new one in.

Of course, His Tonyness will point to the extra £45billion he recently earmarked for schools and say he’s doing his best. But the problem can only be partially solved with more money. It’s how that money is spent that matters. You can give a drunk as much as you like. But he’s not going to spend it on a haircut. Teachers, at the moment, spend far too much time jumping through bureaucratic hoops and not enough in front of the blackboard. Not that it is a blackboard any more because more people, using up more money, have had a meeting and decided it’s a chalkboard. Jeremy Clarkson

Childminders and nurseries will be forced to help them learn to read and write before they reach primary age and they will also be taught “common sense” and “child development”. Children’s Minister Beverley Hughes explained, “We want to establish a coherent framework that defines progression for young children from nought to five. We are not talking about sitting very young children in chairs and making them learn numbers and letters where that is inappropriate.”

The Childcare Bill will see a new curriculum being forced on all youngsters “from birth”. Under the plan, all three-year-olds in childcare will learn rudimentary maths, language and literacy. Ministers risk provoking charges of “nannying” mums and dads into how to bring up their children. Shadow Secretary of State for the Family Theresa May said, “This is ridiculous. Whatever next, an OFSTED inspector in the maternity ward?”

Local councils will also be ordered to ensure a childcare place for every youngster but council leaders claim they will not be able to afford it. They forecast a rise in council tax to pay for the move and demanded an extra £200million over the next two years. (Source: The Sun)