In today’s News of the World, David Cameron shares his fears that he will struggle to give his children a decent education because there are so few good comprehensive schools close to Number 10. As Cameron explained:
“In some parts of the country, there isn’t a choice of good schools,”
This is something that has been apparent to parents for many years. Why else do parents spend a fortune to buy houses in the catchment areas of schools that do deliver a good standard of education to youngsters? Why else are decent performing schools oversubscribed by many times for each place? It’s just another example of Cameron stating the bloody obvious.
But while Cameron laments this state of affairs and gives the impression of standing on a level playing field with other parents, there is a complete absence of an explanation from him about why there are so few good schools. For Cameron, a political coward who is only capable of facing down his own side, is terrified of admitting there are so few good schools because the standard of teaching is so poor.
And is it any wonder why the standards are so poor when the Chairman of the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), Zenna Atkins, holds views such as this:
every school should have a useless teacher […]
[…] If kids can manage to cope with one bad teacher that’ll be a good learning lesson for them in life – it is not necessarily an absolute disaster.
Why should any schoolchild have to cope with a bad teacher? Atkins has desperately tried to qualify her comments and wrap them into a different context, but the fact remains the person with responsibility for educational standards has such views. The teaching unions are just as bad, given they are loathe to let any incompetent teacher be removed from a school. The interests of children should be of absolute priority, but in reality they aren’t. The children are expected to cope and if they can’t, well that’s just too bad.
Is it any wonder why the United Kingdom has slipped down the international league tables when it comes to ability in English, Maths and Sciences?
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