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June 25, 2007
Times Watch
Well, yes:
Work experience is the bain of students and employees alike, but the consequences of doing away with it would be dire.
Agreed, of course, but why limit your discussion of such problems to just one firm of management consultants?
June 25, 2007 in Telegraph Watch. | Permalink
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Comments
"bane", surely?
Tim adds: Quite.
Posted by: Mark Wadsworth | Jun 25, 2007 10:04:48 AM
Yeah, that was the point. Only the link doesn't work to illustrate it.
One does wonder what has happened to copy editors over the years. I have noticed in the last two or three years a shocking deterioration in spelling and coherent writing. That might be down to the wrecked education system ("expressing yourself is more important than grammar, spelling or facts"). Or it might be down to the ease of access to the web by the unwashed chavs. It would be nice to know which.
Posted by: Kay Tie | Jun 25, 2007 10:10:36 AM
In many cases coherent, intelligible articulation would amount to unprecedented personal achievements.
As it is, well, you know, I mean to say, so far as that is concerned, all feature regularly in BBC broadcast interviews even when John Humphrys permits interviewees to speak without successive mid-sentence interruptions.
Only half 16 year-olds can manage the standard of getting 5 GCSEs A*-C grades, including maths and English.
"The research says: 'One striking fact is that poor white students are the lowest performing of all groups at age 16, showing a substantial deterioration in their relative scores through secondary school.'"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5051850.stm
"White British boys from poor families perform worse at GCSE than almost any other racial group. Official figures show that only 24% of those entitled to free school meals gained five or more good GCSEs last year, compared with 65% of the poorest Chinese boys and 48% of poor Indian and Bangladeshi boys."
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/mike_ion/2007/01/the_bnp_and_the_white_boys.html
The Economist report of 26 October 2006 on: The forgotten underclass:
"Last year white teenagers entitled to free school meals—the poorest tenth—did worse in crucial GCSE examinations than equally poor members of any other ethnic or racial group (see chart). In the borough of Barking and Dagenham, the contrast is sharper still. Just 32% of all white children there got five “good” GCSEs last year, compared with 39% of blacks and 52% of Asians. In Leicester, just 24% of whites got five decent GCSEs"
http://www.economist.com/research/backgrounders/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8089315
"Last year [2004], a report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) revealed that Britain came seventh from bottom in a league table of staying-on rates for 19 countries. Only Mexico and Turkey had significantly lower rates of participation for this age group. Italy, New Zealand, Portugal and Slovakia have marginally lower rates."
http://education.guardian.co.uk/gcses/story/0,16086,1555547,00.html
"Only half of those on apprenticeships in England finish them, the chief inspector of adult education has found.
Although standards of training had improved dramatically overall, David Sherlock said low apprenticeship completion rates were 'unacceptable'."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6169843.stm
An accessible piece in The Economist for 26 August 2006 showed that Britain is unusually well-endowed with low-skilled young people compared with other European countries:
http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7843638
"Some 26 million adults lack maths or English skill levels expected of school-leavers. . . An estimated 5.2 million adults have worse literacy than that expected of 11 year olds, while 14.9 million have numeracy skills below this level."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4095153.stm
In all, not much of a national achievement after ten years of the third way . .
Posted by: Bob B | Jun 25, 2007 10:45:15 AM
