Jul 26, 2022
These people are choosing the UK's next prime minister btw
(Only members of the Cons party can vote)
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These people are choosing the UK's next prime minister btw
(Only members of the Cons party can vote)
The English Baccalaureate: A Complete Waste of Time
The Tories are promoting “traditional” subjects in a pointless education reform which will cost them no money and serve to make independent and grammar schools look increasingly superior to their comprehensive counterparts. The Cabinet’s new “bac” is attained my achieving at least a C grade in English, Maths, Science, a language and History or Geography. Not such a big ask, you may think, but why apply such a pointless value judgement about what is worth learning?
Beyond reading, writing, and adding up, how much knowledge that we gain at school does anyone use in every-day life? There is no real reason for thinking that History and Geography are superior to Economics, Philosophy, Technology, Music or any other of the numerous subjects on offer.
The language part is even more baffling. Although it makes sense to create a nation of young people ready to go out and communicate with people all over the world, the inclusion of Ancient Green, Biblical Hebrew, and Latin shows that this is less a practical decision and more a reflection of what the Cabinet’s favourite subjects at school were. That and snobbery. Learning a language can, of course, be incredibly valuable, but it would be wiser to instate language teaching at primary level if the government truly wants a new generation of bilingual, cosmopolitan pupils.
Education in this country is not good enough. Over 30% of pupils don’t manage to achieve a C grade in English and Maths and if articles such as this one are to be believed (http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2005/aug/25/schools.uk2) standards are depressingly low. The solution? There is not a simple one. What the solution clearly isn’t is cuts to public education spending and the introduction of a new and entirely pointless measure of success.