How would you change our Education System?
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Original post by RFowler
If current compulsory education doesn't do that, how will compulsory private tutoring make any difference?
You're right that attitudes have a lot to do with it, but I doubt forcing parents to hire private tutors is the way to sort that out. Hiring a tutor is the sort of decision that should be up to the parents, not something that's mandatory, especially if those parents have to spend their own money on it.
You're right that attitudes have a lot to do with it, but I doubt forcing parents to hire private tutors is the way to sort that out. Hiring a tutor is the sort of decision that should be up to the parents, not something that's mandatory, especially if those parents have to spend their own money on it.
It may address any failings at school, it could allow the child to be ahead of the lessons in terms of the syllabus. Ergo, the child may end up taking early exams or learning extra content.
Taking such a libertarian approach will simply cement these deficiencies.
What can we change this? Everyone I have spoken to about this has had a lot of opinions, as do I, but not many seems to have much to say or many ideas on how we'd go about changing it. Does anyone know any organisations or groups that campaign or speak out about this where I can find out more?
Original post by the bear
there needs to be far more careers advice at schools. the careers teacher should be the highest paid member of staff, with bonuses paid for every student helped to secure a job.
Good idea, but would it not be better to grant students so called voluntary years say in 9th class, so students are able to look around the jobs out of the schools, to taste the different kinds of them by testing?
Maybe they should be supported by people who go between the students?
Another suggestion of myself: granting students to organize their own schedule and to change the education system accordingly to enable the implementation of different schedules by different students.
Definetly connect the workforce to the curriculum such as having schemes where children can experience a vast majority of work places and jobs, instead of telling children to find one work placement. Because how many teens know about different jobs apart from the more traditional ones?
Experiencing the jump from gcse to a levels, suddenly specialising in a few subjects and then finally one or two in university is a waste of time and resources because some students do not know what they want to do and may change their minds about their career path.
Vast majority of work experience right now is about having connections. Schemes to provide it on the other hand can encourage less priviledged children to take part and understand the reason for education and what it is shaping us up for.
2. Compulsory politics lessons and learning about the more minor parties, not just the traditional ones.
Experiencing the jump from gcse to a levels, suddenly specialising in a few subjects and then finally one or two in university is a waste of time and resources because some students do not know what they want to do and may change their minds about their career path.
Vast majority of work experience right now is about having connections. Schemes to provide it on the other hand can encourage less priviledged children to take part and understand the reason for education and what it is shaping us up for.
2. Compulsory politics lessons and learning about the more minor parties, not just the traditional ones.
Make schools perform mental health checkups every month
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Introduce fees for A-Levels, privatise the higher education sector and let universities set their own fees (the higher the better), scrap the student loan system and make fees payable upfront.
If we could just stop changing the specifications every other year and take the time to see if things are actually working that'd be nice.
Original post by #ChaosKass
Introduce fees for A-Levels, privatise the higher education sector and let universities set their own fees (the higher the better), scrap the student loan system and make fees payable upfront.
Why so only the rich can get educated? Anyone should be able to go to university if they have the ability.It should be based on ability not wealth.
Original post by Robby2312
Why so only the rich can get educated? Anyone should be able to go to university if they have the ability.It should be based on ability not wealth.
Anyone would be able to go to university, just that if you want to go you will have to work for a bit and save up.
Original post by #ChaosKass
Anyone would be able to go to university, just that if you want to go you will have to work for a bit and save up.
Right because its so easy to just save up 27 grand and thats before living costs.In effect this would just lead to only rich people going to university.
Remove the ability of councils to select pupils based on parents' religion.
Primary school (+secondary) - after the first couple of years (once they can read and write), abandon teaching by age. Pupils should instead be taught by ability (in each subject). This means clever 7 year olds will mix with average 8 year olds and slow 9 year olds. There will generally be much more mixing between the ages and working outside your age group.
Secondary - end the early specialisation of A levels. Replace them with IB or similar with 5 or 6 subjects. Make maths compulsory for those studying science. Scrap flaky subjects (photography, archaeology, critical thinking, media studies etc.).
Increase the number of national tests (yes!). Having tests once or twice a year will reduce the importance and stress of major benchmarks like SATs or GCSEs and allow more thorough tracking of progress.
University admissions should consider the relative difficulty of A levels, so a B in physics or further maths gets more UCAS points than a B in English and art.
Primary school (+secondary) - after the first couple of years (once they can read and write), abandon teaching by age. Pupils should instead be taught by ability (in each subject). This means clever 7 year olds will mix with average 8 year olds and slow 9 year olds. There will generally be much more mixing between the ages and working outside your age group.
Secondary - end the early specialisation of A levels. Replace them with IB or similar with 5 or 6 subjects. Make maths compulsory for those studying science. Scrap flaky subjects (photography, archaeology, critical thinking, media studies etc.).
Increase the number of national tests (yes!). Having tests once or twice a year will reduce the importance and stress of major benchmarks like SATs or GCSEs and allow more thorough tracking of progress.
University admissions should consider the relative difficulty of A levels, so a B in physics or further maths gets more UCAS points than a B in English and art.
Original post by Retired_Messiah
If we could just stop changing the specifications every other year and take the time to see if things are actually working that'd be nice.
Do I have this right that you wish subjects with a focus to general education? I can understand you. People who were in the British education systems and in another ones in another countries told me that education is to specialized at school.
Compulsory Subjects until 15
Maths and Numeracy/Arithmetic
English Language and Literature
Biology, Chemistry and Physics (Separately)
A class combining aspects of politics, geography, relevant British history and life skills
Philosophy/Religious Studies
Geography OR History OR Both
A Language (French, Spanish, Mandarin, Italian etc - more languages should be widely available)
An art, technology or other "non-academic" subject e.g. Drama, Music etc
Compulsory 15-16
Maths
English Language
At least one science
At least one art, humanity or other
Compulsory Post-16
A class involving numeracy and literacy
GCSEs should allow for more further reading and straying from the spec - the specs are so full and exam technique so important that teachers can't teach everything they would want to within a topic.
GCSEs should be done in year 10, then year 11 and 12 should be an additional qualification between GCSE and A Level, so students don't have to specialise. For example, have about 12 GCSE subjects, drop to about 6, incl Maths, English Lang and a science of their choice. Students then have the option of leaving school after year 12. Then they would do their A Levels in year 13 and 14, extending education by a year.
Maths and Numeracy/Arithmetic
English Language and Literature
Biology, Chemistry and Physics (Separately)
A class combining aspects of politics, geography, relevant British history and life skills
Philosophy/Religious Studies
Geography OR History OR Both
A Language (French, Spanish, Mandarin, Italian etc - more languages should be widely available)
An art, technology or other "non-academic" subject e.g. Drama, Music etc
Compulsory 15-16
Maths
English Language
At least one science
At least one art, humanity or other
Compulsory Post-16
A class involving numeracy and literacy
GCSEs should allow for more further reading and straying from the spec - the specs are so full and exam technique so important that teachers can't teach everything they would want to within a topic.
GCSEs should be done in year 10, then year 11 and 12 should be an additional qualification between GCSE and A Level, so students don't have to specialise. For example, have about 12 GCSE subjects, drop to about 6, incl Maths, English Lang and a science of their choice. Students then have the option of leaving school after year 12. Then they would do their A Levels in year 13 and 14, extending education by a year.
Compulsory politics education. More often during GCSE years, but also going back as early as year 6 or 7
Better sex education that also teaches about same-sex issues
Encourage more students to consider vocational courses during year 8/9, and offer taster sessions for those considering them at colleges
Pastoral staff to be better trained in mental health awareness and policies in all schools/colleges to support pupils
Much better understanding and support for those having to take time out of school due to long-term illness, and more support for students returning to school/college after time out of education for long-term illness
Better sex education that also teaches about same-sex issues
Encourage more students to consider vocational courses during year 8/9, and offer taster sessions for those considering them at colleges
Pastoral staff to be better trained in mental health awareness and policies in all schools/colleges to support pupils
Much better understanding and support for those having to take time out of school due to long-term illness, and more support for students returning to school/college after time out of education for long-term illness
Original post by Kallisto
Do I have this right that you wish subjects with a focus to general education? I can understand you. People who were in the British education systems and in another ones in another countries told me that education is to specialized at school.
My original post was more just about how the way GCSEs and A levels are taught is changing all the time and it feels they never leave them in place long enough to see if any reform put in is even having the desired effect.
Original post by chazwomaq
University admissions should consider the relative difficulty of A levels, so a B in physics or further maths gets more UCAS points than a B in English and art.
University admissions should consider the relative difficulty of A levels, so a B in physics or further maths gets more UCAS points than a B in English and art.
This would not be fair on anybody at all, or particularly sensible. I'm quite good at sciences, yet if I took art and English I would outright fail them both. I know plenty of further mathematicians who can't draw to save their lives and only got Cs in GCSE English. How could one then class a subject like further maths as more difficult than art or English?
Also wouldn't make much sense for somebody applying to do English at uni to get less credit for actually doing English instead of something allegedly more difficult but not actually relevant.
Original post by Retired_Messiah
How could one then class a subject like further maths as more difficult than art or English?
With statistical analysis: https://www.dur.ac.uk/news/newsitem/?itemno=6687
Also wouldn't make much sense for somebody applying to do English at uni to get less credit for actually doing English instead of something allegedly more difficult but not actually relevant.
Of course you would still have usual entry requirements for subjects specifying necessary subjects (e.g. English A level to study English).
Original post by chazwomaq
Of course you would still have usual entry requirements for subjects specifying necessary subjects (e.g. English A level to study English).
Yeah but in order to meet that requirement they're going to inadvertently lower the overall worth of their set of A levels.
MATHS:
- Switch the curriculum to Singapore Maths (said to be the best curriculum in the world, used by many of the leading schools in the UK)
- Make the Maths Challenge mandatory for every secondary school
ENGLISH:
- Make it mandatory for primary schools to use high-quality grammar books
- Make it mandatory for at least 8 books to be studied each year in secondary school (and a minimum of 3 presentations a year, at least in KS3)
- Make it mandatory for at least one Dickens book and one Austen book to be read in secondary school, with other books including Canterbury Tales and Ivanhoe.
- Make it mandatory for poetry to be covered (by memorising, say, 10 poems a year, and doing an art project/presentation on each of them) in years 5-9
SCIENCE:
- Make it mandatory for pupils to be provided with EC science books to read
-Make it mandatory for the Science Challenges (Chem, Phys, Bio) to be available at every secondary school
-Make it mandatory for pupils to be taken to the nearest science centre (or the Science Museum in London, if possible) once or twice during KS3 (if this is not already the case)
- Make it mandatory for primary-aged pupils to be taken to the farm and/or the zoo
Those are my main suggestions. With subjects like art or drama, everything seems pretty good as is. Obviously, some schools in more depraved areas will only be able to do so much, but it would be amazing if something like this were to happen...
Also, as a general note, schools should look for inspiring teachers more than box-ticking ones! To change this, we may have to change the whole GCSE system, and, by making marking just a tad harder, turn GCSEs from being box-ticking key-word-type exams into exams a bit more like the challenges, where you have to think just that bit harder, and not just have to memorise everything. I think that, over everything
else, would make the biggest change to the education system!
- Switch the curriculum to Singapore Maths (said to be the best curriculum in the world, used by many of the leading schools in the UK)
- Make the Maths Challenge mandatory for every secondary school
ENGLISH:
- Make it mandatory for primary schools to use high-quality grammar books
- Make it mandatory for at least 8 books to be studied each year in secondary school (and a minimum of 3 presentations a year, at least in KS3)
- Make it mandatory for at least one Dickens book and one Austen book to be read in secondary school, with other books including Canterbury Tales and Ivanhoe.
- Make it mandatory for poetry to be covered (by memorising, say, 10 poems a year, and doing an art project/presentation on each of them) in years 5-9
SCIENCE:
- Make it mandatory for pupils to be provided with EC science books to read
-Make it mandatory for the Science Challenges (Chem, Phys, Bio) to be available at every secondary school
-Make it mandatory for pupils to be taken to the nearest science centre (or the Science Museum in London, if possible) once or twice during KS3 (if this is not already the case)
- Make it mandatory for primary-aged pupils to be taken to the farm and/or the zoo
Those are my main suggestions. With subjects like art or drama, everything seems pretty good as is. Obviously, some schools in more depraved areas will only be able to do so much, but it would be amazing if something like this were to happen...
Also, as a general note, schools should look for inspiring teachers more than box-ticking ones! To change this, we may have to change the whole GCSE system, and, by making marking just a tad harder, turn GCSEs from being box-ticking key-word-type exams into exams a bit more like the challenges, where you have to think just that bit harder, and not just have to memorise everything. I think that, over everything
else, would make the biggest change to the education system!
Original post by Retired_Messiah
Yeah but in order to meet that requirement they're going to inadvertently lower the overall worth of their set of A levels.
But worth only matters in terms of entry requirements. If you are set on studying English, it is irrelevant that your A levels are worth less than an engineering applicant's.
But a given grade in maths physics and German would be worth more than art, English, history for, say a law applicant.
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