UK weak in school fairness rankings

The UK is below average in an international comparison of social mobility within school systems.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) produces rankings of school performance - but it has now published an analysis of fair opportunities for pupils.

It shows that Shanghai in China, South Korea and Finland are among top performers in both results and equity.

The UK is successful in results, but weaker in fairness.

This OECD study compares the reading skills of teenagers against the levels of social equity.

Reply 1

Barksy

I'd rather we have the better results than some notion of equality.

Reply 2

hslakaal

17

As a South Korean:

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
:rofl:

Korea... a recent survey showed that more students in the capital entered top unis compared to those in the countryside, even though they had same results. All thanks to not just private, afterschool tutoring, but - wait for it - private university application consultations. Don't believe the OECD report too much.

Don't worry. The UK isn't doing too bad. One thing I never quite got was the need to have multiple exam boards though...

(as a side note, just to show even more how s*** my country's education system is:
my sister passed the national exam to become a public school teacher last year back home. Guess what. The passing mark for teachers in the capital, Seoul, is way higher than the ones outside. Oh, and because there aren't enough teachers applying in the countryside, some teachers are being given exemptions for certain stages of the exams if they apply for the countryside. /rant )

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 3

BIJ0U

Original post by Barksy

I'd rather we have the better results than some notion of equality.

But it's even better to have both.

Reply 4

BIJ0U

Original post by hslakaal

As a South Korean:

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
:rofl:

Korea... a recent survey showed that more students in the capital entered top unis compared to those in the countryside, even though they had same results. All thanks to not just private, afterschool tutoring, but - wait for it - private university application consultations. Don't believe the OECD report too much.

Don't worry. The UK isn't doing too bad.

. It's based on PISA (I think it's 15 year olds that take those tests) results on reading skills so it doesn't say anything about upper secondary or university level education.

Reply 5

hslakaal

17

Original post by BIJ0U

. It's based on PISA (I think it's 15 year olds that take those tests) results on reading skills so it doesn't say anything about upper secondary or university level education.

Yeap. I was highlighting the more exaggerated part. Don't worry. It happens to 15 year old too. I spent the summer of 2012 tutoring kids myself, and helping some get into specialist schools.

Honestly, the UK isn't doing too bad. Of course, it can improve, like any country can. The only thing that I'd find a bit of a downer is that your teachers are not usually the best in their batch of graduates (note: not saying there aren't good teachers, but you don't see a lot of Oxbridge science grads doing PGCE degrees and becoming science teachers).

(sidenote, it measures a couple of things, one of which is literacy of reading, maths and science.)

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 6

BIJ0U

Original post by hslakaal

Yeap. I was highlighting the more exaggerated part. Don't worry. It happens to 15 year old too. I spent the summer of 2012 tutoring kids myself, and helping some get into specialist schools.

Honestly, the UK isn't doing too bad. Of course, it can improve, like any country can. The only thing that I'd find a bit of a downer is that your teachers are not usually the best in their batch of graduates (note: not saying there aren't good teachers, but you don't see a lot of Oxbridge science grads doing PGCE degrees and becoming science teachers).

(sidenote, it measures a couple of things, one of which is literacy of reading, maths and science.)

I think that here they were only looking at the reading? I'm sure the UK isn't doing too bad, but just the fact that there are contextual/reduced offers based on social/ educational background (not a disability or such) tells that all schools aren't able to provide the same quality of education regardless of the background. I don't know that much about the British education system, but there seems to be a difference between public and state schools (the same in France) whereas in Finland there is very little difference between schools. Although the Finnish population isn't as diverse, less immigrants and we don't have a class society like in the UK. The route to teaching is a bit different in Finland is a bit different, but her you have to be among the best to get into the course. Those are some of the things that explain why the Finnish educational system is thought to be among the best. But I'm not here to preach on the educational system :biggrin:

I just found that some things in the Finnish system made a lot more sense compared to the French system (they also don't rank do well) when I went to school there for a year.

Reply 7

Aj12

18

How do you measure fairness....

UK weak in school fairness rankings

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