Tuesday 11 September 2012

Education...is there a battle going on?

Anyone who has remotely followed my scribblings over the past five years know that I have been appalled that the Education establishment have been allowed to tamper with the grading system for year after year. These educationalists have actually corrupted British education so that nobody can trust the exam grades.

Students have achieved 'A' grades and yet when tested in a practical setting where they have been asked to demonstrate knowledge and skill they have failed. I saw this directly when I joined an IT training organisation and set simple entry tests.

It gave me a practical insight into the fraud being perpetrated on the British children. The system was rewarding mediocrity and penalising intelligence. Teachers were being granted far too much influence on the grading of the kids that they themselves were teaching.  Consequently everyone was happy because all the kids were getting inflated grades. 

I discovered this when my own rebellious late son arrived under my care after he left the boy's service of the army. He left school with not a single graded GCSE because he was disinterested. When I put him through my own practical tests I was astonished when he gained marks that placed him 3rd out of an intake of 60! The tests were based on practical  knowledge of English, Arithmetic and General Knowledge.  Twenty years later he gained a 2/1 degree in Law at Edinburgh Napier University.

British education is in the hands of people who appear to have a vested interest in bringing it down. These people have created a convoluted grading system which only they can understand. It is patently unfair to the clever kids.

Suddenly it is making headlines. Somebody is challenging the system. It has taken 40 years but suddenly the exam grades are being put under scrutiny. After all if you must replace the 'A' grade with an 'A*' grade then how many stars will you eventually have to manufacture? 

I have no trust in our politicians but someone is challenging the system. Why now? What is happening? Has the damage been done so that now they want to repair the system? I suspect that a battle has been joined. The Teachers Unions will resist every challenge to their authority. They do not want our children to be educated properly. They have a toxic agenda aimed at maintaining mediocrity. They have dumbed down everything so that exams taken by me at 11 years of age cannot be even contemplated by 16 years old today.

I don't know why but suddenly the politicians think that the system needs an overhaul (and how).  I wish them the best of luck because the teaching unions are  some of the most articulate, intelligent and poisonous of all our trade unions. After all they have the most to lose. When you are really trying to destroy a nation you begin with education. Tony Bliar knew that!

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