Teacher Shortage Crisis

EarthRod

Adult education is a wonderful thing, so it is said. The wealth and breadth of knowledge is out there if one is interested.

Motivation to self-learn can come a little later in life. In fact, the learning process continues throughout life and is not restricted to the narrow formalities of a school education.

nabby

Sounds like the Tory party is heading for a big split on the academy proposals:
Tory backbench rebellion threat over George Osborne’s academies plan

Nicky Morgan fancies herself as the new Jeremy Hunt, who was the new Andrew Lansley

tapzilla2k

My main point is we don't do nearly enough to help young people who struggle with education and therefore are not prepared enough for the adult world. That's probably part of why we have a skills shortage.

EarthRod

Not sure about the point you're making.

If a young person is struggling with school education then it could be that person will blossom when out of school and in the big wide world.

Also, it could be a young person does very well in the school environment but cannot cope in the big wide world.

It is true that a skills shortage in business could be blamed on the education and schooling system, but I have a suspicion that the young people themselves play a big part. If they lack motivation, are not interested or are lazy then they are left behind as other young people forge ahead.

tapzilla2k

The point is we simply focus on those children who perform academically well, and the rest either do it by themselves or are just not given the time of day or children are so disruptive they are shunted around. Then you have kids with mental health problems who do not get the support they need to avoid the ravages of mental health in later life. Been there, got the t-shirt. Of course you'll get the mavericks like Richard Branson who leave school with little to no qualifications and end up making millions.

Basically the exam factories that schools have become, are ultimately failing to deliver a quality education and you can argue is damaging the UK economy. It's also leading to a clique in society dominating jobs in important areas like Politics, the Media and so on.

Anyway my friend said you may as well work in Tesco's given she and others are not paid enough to do all the paperwork, deal with the stress of the job (endless ofsted inspections), teach children (the bit she loves the most) and keep a look out for Children who might be suffering abuse and so on.

IronGiant

My observation of children with extra needs is that they get it in a way that was never available in my day (or yours?)   It's being mightily squeezed of late but it is there.  If anything the academically gifted are expected to sort themselves out while quotas are met to pull everyone else up to a minimum standard.

tapzilla2k

From what I've read and heard, mental health is still not dealt with properly by schools and associated public services. Special needs does seem to have improved, but I guess the quality of those services depends upon which part of the country you are in.

EarthRod

My primary school days back in the 1950s, from what I remember, seem to revolve around different forms of punishment for those who transgressed and strict management for those who didn't. The words 'tender care' do not readily spring to mind when looking back.

However, we all seemed to be happy and played in hand-me-down clothes without a care in the world in those smog filled days with no central heating and poor sanitary arrangements. Happy days.

Pecker

You can trust the following bit, as I rarely say anything good about this government unless I have to.

A big positive is that they're changing the league tables.  It used to be % of students getting 5  GCSEs at grades A*-C, including English and maths.  So all the focus was on C/D borderline students in as fairly narrow range of subjects.

They're now replacing this with 'Progress 8'.  In short, they take students' results at the end of primary school and figure what they should be getting (on average) in each subject for GCSE.  They'll then look at their GCSE results 5 years later.  They'll give them a points score based on whether they've fallen short of, met, or exceeded expectations in each subject.  These scores will then be averaged out over the whole year group and score given for the school.  As the name suggests this is over 8 subjects, with careful rules to ensure it's a fairly well-spread range.

The advantages are that converting a G to an F gets the students (and the school) extra points, as does converting an A to an A*, whereas previously there was only incentive to up a D to a C.

Also, this matters for every one of 8 subjects, not just 5.

There are problems, though.  Not least of which is the fact that progress was going to be measured using NC Levels at age 11...and they're abolishing NC Levels.

Watch this space.

Steve W

IronGiant

I was referring to my children not myself.
I'm sure everyone from our days had the equivalent of the 7 foot tall metal work teacher who kept a size 14 Dunlop Green Flash shoe in his cupboard to administer corporal punishment, or the art teacher who would throw a chisel at you .