Mumsnet on TV last night with John Humphries.

[GabbyLoggon]

It was BBC TV at 9pm (monday 20th)

The subject was unequal opportunities in
education.
John Humphries said it was a "class thing."

Did you agree with his analysis? Did you agree with the programme?

Did you think some of the Head teachers were bragging just a little?

[inkyfingers]

I agree it's a class thing. Early in the programme he featured children aged 2/3 who were a year behind with language. This has nothing to do with schools, but with culture, families etc.

I wasn't sure about the East London primary example. About 90% were from different cultures/languages and I wonder what their expectations were like for education and behaviour. For example teachers who work with pupils from Poland comment on their good behaviour and positive attitude to work, in contrast to white British peers.

But also schools can do a lot as some of the head teachers featured proved. I don't think they are aspirational enough - just getting '5 good GCSEs grade C or above, blah, blah' is seen as 'job done'. Because that's what the govt said is enough.

I'm wondering about the standard of teachers in schools - maybe Ofsted/Daily Mail is correct. BUT why has the govt set standards of entry so low (any class of degree acceptable). Why do brightest graduates avoid teaching as the worst sort of job? Colleges accept those who apply, schools can only appoint those who apply for jobs, esp in shortage subjects. There's no teacher conspiracy to do a crap job and hold back the poorest students.

[Diliana]

My solutions are these. In state schools, one day every week they should allow two PhDs in science and engineering who are seasoned in research who obtained their PhD from leading universities, to address the children and transmit their experiences. You see that such people are at the cutting edge of knowledge and what you want is for them to excite the children about advances in science, technology and many other fields. There are so many advances happening. Yet children are standing on street corners and largely ignorant. Parents also are ignorant of it. Our country is "very British" and very inward looking. We need to be more outward looking. We think the world does not change but the world does change and very rapidly. Today's jobs are not tomorrow's jobs. So we need the guys to go and inspire the kids. The current teachers and Head Teacher etc cannot do that because they are not people in the thick of it.
Even Google has the 4 day and 1 day for personal projects. And 3M had it also. We need no justification from industry for this but I offer it to the more "materialistic".

[Diliana]

Of course one final thing to say is this. If the government protected the science and engineering professions in the same way that it protects accountancy and law, then engineers and scientists would command the same level of salary as they do in Germany. Then there would be a real incentive for children to study for they would feel that there was a point to studying. In South Korea, Germany, and many other countries, the state schooling is far better than the private schooling. Nobody in Germany says "I went to Eaton, where did you go?" the concept is ridiculous for Germans. They would ask "where did you do your Machinenbau (mechanical engineering) degree? Nobody cares what state school because they are all rather the same. The fact that we, parents, have to spend such ridiculous amounts of money on primary and secondary education or that our kids are learning how to knit instead of learning the multiplication tables is truly scandalous.