Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Education reform


There has been a lot on the news recently about how the school leaving age might go up to 18. I have decided that this isn’t necessarily a bad thing because this could actually improve the education we do at present if done right.

What I think is that school should be a three day week and the nations children should be split into two groups. One group goes to school on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and the other group goes on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This is similar to what happens at state nurseries as there are two groups, one which goes on the morning and the other goes on the afternoon.

Seeing as they would have less schooling you can then put the leaving age up to 18 to make up for it and have less holidays.

This would mean that class sizes would be halved. I had 24 in my class at secondary school it would have been good and better for my education if there were only 12 as the teacher could focus on the individuals more.

There is a downside to this though (like all my ideas it would seem) as parents who are working would have nobody to look after their children and may have to pay a child minder. Maybe the state could then offer child minding services during the week up until the age of 12?

Anyone like or dislike this idea?

2 comments:

Stan said...

I don't like the idea - but at least you are thinking "outside the box" as they say!

Regarding class sizes - at my junior school there were 36 in my class and no teaching assistants. But we did OK - most of us passing the 11+ exam alright. At grammar school the class size varied between 32-35 and yet most children achieved good O levels and went on to university. I didn't stay on or go to university - not because my grades weren't good enough, just because I'd had enough of school and wanted to work. That is why I am against the idea of raising the school age. Some kids, like me, have just had enough of school by the time theu are 14 or 15 and are biding their time until they leave at 16. Forcing them into another 2 years of full time education will just alienate them further. Let them leave at 16 if they want to.

The other point about raising the school age is that we have a shortage of young people coming into the workplace as it is. Raising the school age will increase the demand for more immigration.

youdontknowme said...

The other point about raising the school age is that we have a shortage of young people coming into the workplace as it is.

Not really. you have 3 days at school and you have the rest of the week to work if you want to