Been watching BBC News and Im a liitle confused by what they are saying about our children.?

Question

If, as the powers that be say, our younger children are struggling to obtain standards with the three R's, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. How come there are so many more passing their A Levels and Highers. Does puberty suddenly make the brain cells go into learning overdrive and suddenly everything falls into place?
I Dont think so!!

Surely puberty has the opposite effect and the last thing on their minds is school and education!!

Answer 1

Catherine!...I hope you are not suspecting that our wonderful politicians are playing games with our children's education are you?????

How dare you place your child's future ahead of the opportunistic whims of our greasier and betters!!

Of course our children fail in an habitual and anti social manner right up until they are required to succeed in such a way as to prove beyond doubt the efficacy of the governments policies!!

How else would ministers draw a decent pension?

Don't you worry about it. As long as we produce children capable of supporting the likes of Blair and Bush...nothing much will change.

Answer 2

The goverment has set quite tough literacy and numeracy targets for schools, and although the setting up of numeracy and literacy hours as part of the curriculum has increased the numbers of children reaching a minimum standard, the rate of "improvement" is starting to slow down.

Undoubtedly the figures can be used toi show whatever you want, but generally we were producing too many youngsters who could not read and write when they left school. This is fine in an economy where lots of manual labour is required, but the changes in technology in business mean that these people are unemployable - leading to a cycle of poverty, ill health and crime - which their children also find hard to break out of.

The methods used so far have improved the standard of the "3Rs" in children moving across from primary to secondary schools. This means that less effort and time is need to cover what they should already be able to do. This allows the school to move the children onwards, + more are capable of taking qualifications required for a good job as they pass out of senior school and into the adult world.

The slow down in the figures shows that there are a core of children who need more individual attention, and I read in Friday's Times Education that it is proposed to use a series of mentors to help these particular children to improve their skills.

Obviously there will always be a core of children, who for no real fault of their own; such as learning disabilities, social or cultural constraints, are prevented from achieving "normal" levels in the 3Rs. But thesae children can be supported and helped to achieve what they can.

A secondary answer is also need to explain why pass rates of GCSE and A levels are improving. They are not really getting easier, changes in the way the subjects are examined have helped to make sure that those (like me who are not exam stars) can achieve grades that reflect our abilities. A mix of Assignments, coursework, fieldtrips, practicals and exams assures that qualifications are available equally to all students irrespective of where their stregths and weaknesses lay.

On a personal note I did crap in my O and A levels due to dyslexia and having to get it all down in one or more exams. Since then I have attended continuous assessment courses and have rarely scored less than 85% in anything including a two year Masters course.

Answer 3

Remember that A levels are done post 16. If people have been struggling with the 3 Rs they usually leave school at 16 and in fact, only too many, drop out before then.
Truancy rates are up as well as A-level passes.

Answer 4

It sounds as if the reports are meant to be specific to this generation, i.e. the younger generation of today who appear to be failing the basics now will not be able to obtain the higher scores that the teens of today are achieving.

The ideas of child care, education, and the society in which children are living today have changed, even in the past decade and perhaps it's time for yet another reevaluation of our current methods.

Answer 5

1) because they've adjusted the tests to make them easier
2) because they now teach to the test, meaning that they teach what it takes to pass the test, rather than general knowledge that may be encompassed on the test
3) gross numbers does not include percentages of children passing the test. Population is higher than it used to be, therefore more children will pass the test. It probably isn't as high a percentage

also like what someone said about drop outs. Do they compare drop-outs in the numbers? What about alternative schools? Where did you get the data for more children passing their tests?

Good luck.

Answer 6

The way that tests are marked has changed - these days you don't get marked down for bad spelling , and you don't even need to get the right answer in a maths question, you can still earn marks as long as your 'working out' was heading in roughly the right direction.

A lot of exams involve more coursework which can be done again and again until the teacher is satisfied, and with a lot of pupils using computers to write up their work, spellcheck does some of the work for them!

Answer 7

The reason our children are struggling at school is because of a tiny drop of Mercury in the 3 Ms injection. It will not kill them or harm them but it does short out the neurons and nerve paths in the brain. Now you know why Blair and Brown will not confirm or deny whether their children have had to injection, they haven't.
They are creating a world of zombies who will obey what they want without question.
If you don't believe me find out and ask yourself why they are putting mercury in the injections when a few years ago they were teling us to get the mercury out of our teeth fillings because of problems.
They wish to create a world of us and them, them being the decendants of those now in power, us being the dominated majority.

Answer 8

More people are going into higher education. When I left school most people went straight into work, only the bright kids went into further education. Now it seems that everyone either stays at school or goes to college.