[navarre]

Title says it all, really.

I'll start.

1) Teach Ancient History. I'm a history buff, and I've studied it all the way up to A2, but the lack of ancient content is painful. The Ancient Egyptians, Romans, Greeks and Mesopotamians are fascinating and amongst the greatest human civilisations, and the lack of knowledge of them amongst most people is startling. I know in some limited schools there is a subject called ancient history, but most school offer no such thing. Don't get me wrong, Weimar Germany and Russia are interesting enough, but you shouldn't have to study them for KS3, GCSE and A level. And dull as dishwater topics like the English Civil War/Cromwell should not be taught at all, at the risk of alienating potential historians from the subject.


2) Reform RS. My GCSE RS consisted of little more than reviewing the Catholic and Quakers views on abortion, marriage and war. Yawn. Is this the best they can do? Of the countless religions, beliefs and holy scriptures out there, this is pathetic. I'm all for learning about Christianity (after all, it's the predominant religion), but it's a massive religion with many interesting aspects- let's study them instead of some passage about the importance of marriage, shall we? And we need to study more of Judaism, Islam and Hinduism- the other great world religions exist too, y'know.

3) Get rid of French and so reform language study. I'm all for learning a language in today's globalised world, but why the heck is French still so widely taught? Bar ordering lunch on a French motorway, the language is a useless skill and children should not have to waste countless hours learning it. We need to put more effort into important languages and those of emerging economies, that actually will be spoken in the future and may dominate the globe- Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic or Hindi. French is a language in decline, and I imagine it's only still taught because people like to sound 'cultured' and love to live in the past. Time to look to the future and give children skills that might be valuable for future jobs.

Give yourse.

[OU Student]

Make school more about learning than just about passing exams.

Teach skills such as first aid.

[Annoying-Mouse]

1) Critical thinking class with a little info on our political structure. Importance of being informed and understanding of the implications of misinformation. Explain limits to human reasoning. Explain how complex policy making is and importance of not coming to conclusions based on a Guardian/Telegraph article. The problems with individual cases. Some statistics lessons and how it can be abused. etc etc

2) Teach philosophy of religion instead of religion.

3) More access to vocational stuff and less assumptions that every kid can be academic.

[Miracle Day]

1. Get rid of private schools or close the enormous gap between state and private education.
2. Make the less respected subjects more respected even if this means making them harder.
3. Make sure the examiners are fully qualified to mark and aren't uni students after some money.

[ThisIsTheLife]

1) Privatise it. All of it (as I would with all services).

2) Require teachers to have DECENT degrees in the subject they teach - too many teachers out there get by JUST knowing the syllabus, and not much else. Don't know how many teacher's I put on the spot in high school with relatively basic questions that were ever so slightly beyond the scope of the syllabus. (Although privatising would probably encourage this anyway - privatisation = competition = requirement for companies to have an edge = requirement for companies to hire highly competent teachers).

3) Abolish catchment areas (again, would occur naturally with privatisation). But I believe with conviction that parents and students should be able to choose their place of education freely based on the merit of the school. In the current system we have a lot of talented youngsters born into under-privileged areas having their talent wasted because their local school is filled with the society's underbelly. Even in a public system this would be a good thing, as the 'bad' schools would be weeded out.

[CXDK]

I only have one but:

Stop extra time for people in exams. There not going to get it in the real world. If someone is less capable in a exam then that should reflect in their grades... that's what grades are there for?

Wait I have a 2nd:

I'm going to uni and I wont get any funding from my parents, the uni sees that my parents are well off and assume I will have money. Meaning I'm not entitled to ANY help with my funding...

[Miracle Day]

(Original post by ThisIsTheLife)
1) Privatise it. All of it (as I would with all services).

2) Require teachers to have DECENT degrees in the subject they teach - too many teachers out there get by JUST knowing the syllabus, and not much else. Don't know how many teacher's I put on the spot in high school with relatively basic questions that were ever so slightly beyond the scope of the syllabus. (Although privatising would probably encourage this anyway - privatisation = competition = requirement for companies to have an edge = requirement for companies to hire highly competent teachers).

3) Abolish catchment areas (again, would occur naturally with privatisation). But I believe with conviction that parents and students should be able to choose their place of education freely based on the merit of the school.

Are you retarded? Privatise education and create a completely unfair elitist system where those who can afford schooling get the best jobs and those who can't including their kids and grand kids would work in Mc Donalds and on farms for pennies.

That would be a massive step back for society.

[ThisIsTheLife]

(Original post by CXDK)
I only have one but:

Stop extra time for people in exams. There not going to get it in the real world. If someone is less capable in a exam then that should reflect in their grades... that's what grades are there for?

Well that's not necessarily true. I'm very, very sure that Stephen Hawking is allowed as much extra time as he needs in his work, and is granted hired help to accomplish his tasks.

Had he been as ill as he is now during his time in school and university, he would not have passed a single exam without extra time and facilities.

That's an extreme example, I admit, but the same is true elsewhere and for other people. Their talents can't be missed or ignored on the basis of some physical disability.

Although I must admit I am concerned about the epidemic of dyslexia diagnoses, and think it is a false disease with questionable evidential backing.

Wait I have a 2nd:

I'm going to uni and I wont get any funding from my parents, the uni sees that my parents are well off and assume I will have money. Meaning I'm not entitled to ANY help with my funding...

That's nothing to do with schools .

[chickenonsteroids]

Improve how languages are taught. It shouldn't just be French in primary school.

Make GCSEs harder. I don't think the gap from GCSE to A levels is right. It'll generally improve the intelligence of people.

Remove the emphasis on university. Not everyone needs to go. Some people would be better off doing apprenticeships simply because they enjoy it a lot more. It'd probably be more beneficial to them also.

[Zangoose]

I can only think of one at the moment and this is something that has bugged me.

I would make it compulsory for young pupils to learn a second language right from the start of primary school so that they have mastered it by the start of secondary school. The language/languages will be of their own choice (hopefully with a diverse array to choose from) and must be taught with the same stringency as English classes, throughout the remainder of their academic lives.

However, the problem with this is that most English people don't seem proficient in their own language so taking on a new one would probably cause nationwide brain depletion. You only have to look on the University Discussion forum to see how this beautiful language is bastardized by so-called 'educated youngsters'.

If Europeans as a whole, can master English as well as their native languages, why can't the lazy-ass Brits do the same thing? This is why Brits make such a bad name for themselves abroad because their lack of exposure to other cultures from an early age gives off an aura of ignorance and stupidity.

[ThisIsTheLife]

(Original post by Miracle Day)
Are you retarded? Privatise education and create a completely unfair elitist system where those who can afford schooling get the best jobs and those who can't including their kids and grand kids would work in Mc Donalds and on farms for pennies.

That would be a massive step back for society.

Tax and state welfare incentives not to become educated and work productively, more than anything else in this country, is what is failing the lower and middle classes in their social mobility.

Remove tax burdens and remove welfare incentives, and I assure you, the lower and middle classes will become wealthier.

Additionally, private schools AS WE UNDERSTAND THEM TODAY are indeed very expensive entities which are almost exlusively for the upper classes. However, in a better, more libertarian society, private school would not equate to ridiculous, out-of-reach fees.

For example, I shop in Lidl. It's much cheaper, I find, than other supermarket chains. However, the food I get from Lidl is not nutritionally inferior, or even poorer in quality or taste than most expensive brands or supermarkets - in fact, I find a lot of the food there to be of higher quality than many branded equivalents from other chains. I don't feel inferior to others because I can't afford to shop in Waitrose, and probably if I was a millionaire, I'd still seek the best value for money. In a privatised free market, there is a company for every customer.

The point I'm making is that free-market privatised systems encourage competition and market coverage. You'd get much better value for money, as companies would be incentivised by profits to give it to you.

Anyway, I disagree with the fundmental point you're making which is that a person's success in education is related to the cost of the fees they pay to the institution at which they study. I think that's nonsense. I was mainly self-taught at school, and my attendance was very poor, as I didn't think that the way the school taught was suitable to the way I wanted to learn. It didn't hold me back in the slightest in attaining the highest grades in the school, going on to attain the highest grades in my class at Uni and getting a first, and going on to study for a doctorate.

[roh]

(Original post by ThisIsTheLife)
1) Privatise it. All of it (as I would with all services).

2) Require teachers to have DECENT degrees in the subject they teach - too many teachers out there get by JUST knowing the syllabus, and not much else. Don't know how many teacher's I put on the spot in high school with relatively basic questions that were ever so slightly beyond the scope of the syllabus. (Although privatising would probably encourage this anyway - privatisation = competition = requirement for companies to have an edge = requirement for companies to hire highly competent teachers).

3) Abolish catchment areas (again, would occur naturally with privatisation). But I believe with conviction that parents and students should be able to choose their place of education freely based on the merit of the school. In the current system we have a lot of talented youngsters born into under-privileged areas having their talent wasted because their local school is filled with the society's underbelly. Even in a public system this would be a good thing, as the 'bad' schools would be weeded out.

You're going to need to up the salaries significantly to do this, particularly in Maths and Sciences where we lack graduates and the top graduates are partly creamed off by our unusually large financial services sector.

Even if, as you say, schools are more thorough in their assessment of candidates it's still going to take cash to improve the pool of candidates itself.

[blueconstellation]

1. Make primary school history more inspiring, and cut Henry VIII from it. He's hardly a good role model for feminism.

2. Teach and practise a few formal debates. Perhaps this is just me, but it really annoys me when I see TV debates which are manipulated by one side and the other side doesn't even realise.

3. Teach some simple economics, maybe? It would help those who don't study it for GCSE etc to understand what been happening with the recession an dat.

EDIT: Dude, why the hate?

[ThisIsTheLife]

(Original post by roh)
You're going to need to up the salaries significantly to do this, particularly in Maths and Sciences where we lack graduates and the top graduates are partly creamed off by our unusually large financial services sector.

Even if, as you say, schools are more thorough in their assessment of candidates it's still going to take cash to improve the pool of candidates itself.

Well this is why I support privatisation of education. Private companies with various means of revenue generation are much better placed to attract and keep talented graduates.

We can complain until we're blue in the face that all the private schools and other industries are taking the best candidates and leaving the state systems with the left-overs. But that's the nature of the private industry - if you're not competitive, you don't get customers, and you don't get quality staff. You can't have state and private systems operating simultaneously and expect any sort of quality to grow in the state system - the private system will always win. The only solution is either to privatise fully or nationalise fully. And I completely abhor the idea of complete state-education where NOBODY has the freedom of choice in their place, style and quality of education.

State education will never improve beyond a very disappointing plateau because, almost by definition, it can not be competitive.

[Rennit]

1: Make it ALOT easier for any underperforming disruptive students to be expelled. Preferably put them in units where they can kill eachother off in epic battles/duels.

2: have a 0 tolerance stance to bullying: you bully once, warning, you bully twice, weeks detention, you bully thrice, suspension. 4th time leads to getting sent to the arena to fight to the death.

3: Introduce seperate stages of schooling, much like the German system. Seperate students out into the academics and the practicalists.

[blueconstellation]

The point I'm making is that free-market privatised systems encourage competition and market coverage. You'd get much better value for money, as companies would be incentivised by profits to give it to you.

Yes, schools as a whole would be better quality if they were privatized, but the better quality ones would be more expensive. Poorer children who would be more suited to a more expensive school would be unable to attend. Since a parent pays for a child's education rather than the child themselves, this would be an unfair system as the child would lose out without the fault being their own.

[roh]

(Original post by ThisIsTheLife)
Well this is why I support privatisation of education. Private companies with various means of revenue generation are much better placed to attract and keep talented graduates.

We can complain until we're blue in the face that all the private schools and other industries are taking the best candidates and leaving the state systems with the left-overs. But that's the nature of the private industry - if you're not competitive, you don't get customers, and you don't get quality staff.

State education will never improve beyond a very disappointing plateau because, almost by definition, it can not be competitive.

But how will a private school make the same revenue as say a Big 4 accountancy firm or investment bank? They simply aren't in the same league of profitability but still need the same candidates, though I'm open to suggestions as to how they could find the money to offer those sorts of salaries to staff.

As you say the current private schools take those who turn down the dollar because they see teaching as a vocation but making all schools private isn't going to magically produce lots of top class maths and science graduates to fill those positions in what used to be state schools. Even the current crop of top end private schools (Westminster, Eton, Roedean, St Paul's etc.) don't offer those sorts of salaries, in spite of fees way beyond most peoples' financial limits, so I fail to see how others would.

The solution is producing more top class graduates in these disciplines and thus reducing their market value, which isn't in your plan.

[Didierr]

Similar to a previous post but
1) Extra time should be stopped- this won't help them cope with problems in the real world
2) More practical teaching from years 7 to 10, for example once a week we used to have a "skills workshop" which consisted sleeping in a classroom whilst a video was being played on a teenager who was pregnant or how to avoid debt
3) MORE RECESS well I'm joking but study periods especially early on- I had no idea how to revise, make notes or about exam technique until I was in late year 10!

[xiyangliu]

Re-educate all primary school teachers cuz they are useless !!!! Or lower their wages !!


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[OSharp]

(Original post by xiyangliu)
Re-educate all primary school teachers cuz they are useless !!!! Or lower their wages !!


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

This sounds like an awful idea, removing their wages is hardly going to incentivise them is it.

Don't limit me to three things!

1) More Money - obviously

2) Kill Michael Gove or at the very least imprison him deep in a mountain where he can't do any more damage

3) Move away from the idea that if students are going to learn any language it has to be french or german.

Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and a million other languages are far more interesting and useful

4) ICT should involve some degree of actual computer science

5) scrap exam boards

6) Pay teachers more

7) Have a truly comprehensive system this means scrapping academies and free schools, whilst providing enough funding for teaching to enable gifted students to flourish, having gone to a brilliant state school I will fight doggedly to defend there ability to produce bright young adults.

8) Make exams harder so as the grade boundaries aren't ridiculously tight together, for some exams the difference between an A and a D is less than 15%

most importantly remember that education is good value for money and only by producing a well educated stream of bright young individuals can we ever hope to survive as a country with near zero manufacturing power.