David Cameron has decided in his infinite wisdom to criticise
Oxford University for only having one
black student last year. What is this man on? Why doesn't he look at our absolutely appalling school system which hasn't produced any black students capable of getting to Oxbridge?
Schools in England at this present time are being judged on results. Because of this, schools are teaching to the tests, they have to in order to get results. My own husband was told to pass a student in an exam - the student in question did not understand the majority of the test despite having had the same tuition as the rest of the class. She had not received the individual tuition that she should have got and indeed, deserved, because the school chose to use the Teaching Assistants elsewhere in the school.
What has gone wrong with schools over the past 20 years? In my very humble opinion one of the major things is the lack of streaming in schools. The idea that all pupils should be taught in the same class regardless of ability. Where does this leave a teacher you have to ask yourself? In a good school based in a good neighbourhood there won't be too much of a problem but in some schools, where the disruptive children are not interested in learning and are determined to stop other pupils from learning it is a disaster. This is compounded in schools where there is no back up from the Senior Management Team (SMT) and where there are no definite strategies in place to help teachers.
Imagine yourself in a classroom - you have 30 pupils aged 14 or so. Fred, Sam and Jim are not interested in learning about French/ICT/Maths - all they want to do is leave school and get a job with the local farmer. They begin low level disruption, muttering and giggling quietly whilst the teacher is talking to the rest of the class (despite sitting away from each other)...this escalates into throwing things. The Teacher asks them to be quiet, which is ignored, then tells them that they will be removed should it carry on. They do carry on and the Teacher leaves the class to make a phone call to the office requesting that someone comes and takes the disruptive students out. He/She goes back to the class which has become very noisy in the meantime, to try and carry on with the lesson. During all of this, the 3 pupils in question have got up and started walking around the room, possibly aggravating other pupils and causing more trouble. After 10 more minutes of this, no one has arrived to help the Teacher so he/she goes to make another phone call only this time he/she is told that all SMT members are busy and they will just have to cope.....Already the whole class has missed about 20 minutes of the lesson and what chance has the Teacher now got of getting the class under control?
This happens across the country every day ....because someone, somewhere decided that all children should be treated the same and included into everything whether if affects the rest of the class or not ..
That is just ONE of the problems faced by Teachers every day and also one of the problems faced by the pupils who actually want to learn - our schools and school system is an absolute disgrace to the country and to our children
