Has the British Gov. lost its compass on education as well?

Question

Scrapping the long summer holidays for schools!!!

* This show that the british Gov. doesn't know what to do about the failing education in UK!

* UK has the lowest level of education in Europe, I guess in the world!, even they have longer summer holidays in those countries!

* The problem here is " there is no respect for the teacher, and the teachers have no power to discipline the noisy & disturbing children!"

* The government should change its pumbering /soft approach towards children in general & allow teachers to discipline those children of bad behaviour.

* Children should not be allowed to do whatever they want & go away with it! They should be taught to do only the good & acceptable things.

This is a long subject, But it is the system of soft approach , which let those students fall behind!

Answer 1

what will that do to all the parents who work i wonder, think about that Mr Brown. That will stuff the economy up, and what company is going to employ people who constantly take time off work, right through the year to look after their children.

Answer 2

I think you might be referring to

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/pressass/200805...

(This is just what we really need a quasi government organisation (IPPR) reporting on a quasi government organisation (OFSTED)  It would be very interesting to know how much this revelatory report cost in time and money)

OK I’ll go through the points as presented.

“Long school holidays should be abolished under radical changes to the traditional academic year to stop children falling behind in class, a report has recommended.

Research suggested that pupils lose some of their reading skills during the long summer break, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said.

The school year could be divided into five eight-week terms with a fortnight's holiday between each, the centre-left think-tank said. This would allow pupils to sustain their education more easily over the course of the year.

The report followed concerns from Ofsted that progress raising educational standards in England has "stalled", with one in five 11-year-olds unable to master the three Rs.”

--------------------------------------...

It is about time long school holidays were changed!

5 (terms) x 8 (weeks) = 40 weeks = 200 days of education/year.

I can not understand why as children get older the number of education days stays the same from 5-16! Not a good education for adult life. Why doesn’t the number of school days increase with age?

(Prepares for lots of thumbs down from teachers)

Teachers want to regain the position they had in society many years ago i.e. they were respected members of society – it really is about time they came up to the modern standards of work practice – it would help in their pay claims as well.

What other profession (that wants to be treated seriously in the UK) has 12 weeks paid holiday a year? A holiday percentage >23%. Other working professions have a holiday percentage <10%. What on earth is going on!

It is not just the responsibility of schools to teach the 3’R’s.

Children have parents. It should be a partnership between parents and education to teach children the 3’R’s and a h**l of a lot more.

There’s more to love than Playstations, PC’s and X-boxes

(Great, now I’ve got thumbs down from all the parents!)

How on earth are working parents going to organise their working lives around all these holidays?

Different schools within the same education authority ‘stagger’ their half term holidays as it is.

At the end of the article it says “Ultimately however, we leave it up to local authorities who best understand the circumstances in their area."

What a cop out!

More cynically is this a plan to allow holiday companies to increase their prices as there will be more school holiday periods – not to mention the possibility of additional ‘inset’ days!

--------------------------------------...

Sonia Sodha, IPPR research fellow and the report's lead author said: "There have been many positive gains in education over the last decade but in recent years results have plateaued.

"If we are serious about continuing to improve outcomes for all children, we need long-term reform that better gears our school system around the needs of children and young people."

Another cop out!

Just exactly what are these ‘many positive gains?

How recent is recent?

More cynically – this gives us another opportunity to mess around with the education system, create more disruption within the teaching profession – let’s find another way of teaching them to read! (Oh I expect the next big educational edict from Mr Balls will be let’s teach children to learn their multiplication tables!!)

--------------------------------------...

The report also called for a new primary school curriculum to be drawn up allowing children more opportunities to learn through play.

Ms Sodha said: "Children's well-being is fundamental to their learning. Schools need more support in developing healthy and happy young people.

Of course as we all know life is all play isn’t it?

This is why the government and local authorities have allowed the selling off of playing fields around schools for private housing.

This is why the government and the local authorities have implemented SATS (against the teaching profession’s advice) which means that the opportunities for sports and play are limited within the number of available school days.

--------------------------------------...

Children's Minister Kevin Brennan said the Government encouraged councils to adopt the "standard school year".

He said: "This model sees six terms of equal length, spread evenly across the year. Ultimately however, we leave it up to local authorities who best understand the circumstances in their area."

Oh really! Just how has the government ‘encouraged’ this adoption?

More cynically – “Mmm I’ve been asked to comment on this.

I must make a comment on this because I think what I’m going to say is important.

Must not say anything to criticise my party otherwise I will lose my ministerial position and more importantly the extra salary/benefits it attracts.

Must at all costs make a comment that can’t be used against me in the future

Ahh yes got it!”

--------------------------------------...