An article recommended by one of our readers who says:
“Our education is so bad, it crosses political boundaries. All parties are responsible for the decline, but Erica Standford is taking a strong stand at long last. This article is excellent, also in taking a similar stance.”
Can they read, write and do maths at or even above their curriculum level?
Do you even understand what that means? (Your child’s school report will vaguely tell you if they are within their year level or off the pace)
Or do you trust teachers, schools and the wider education system to get it right?
If you sit in the camp that doesn’t pay much attention to any of this and just assumes they are getting it right then I have some alarming news.
New Education Minister, Erica Stanford, has told me more than half our primary school pupils turn up at college on the first day, well short of where they need to be academically.
In reading, writing and maths and so much more they haven’t kept up.
Stanford says it’s across all subjects and not just the basics.
‘It’s hard to sugar coat our dire achievement,’’ she says.
Successive governments since the 1970s adopted the Marie Clay method of reading..As a student teacher in training..I foresaw problems with the methodology…in Tomorrow Schools Era. Phonetics was frowned upon.
Minister Stanford can be applauded for rolling out a programme which has been TRIALLED for a few years.
Several schools were given training and full resources backup in its implementation. Which takes MONEY ….not slashing MOE budgets
That covers reading syllabus..maths is a different story altogether
Over the years hundreds if not thousands of teachers , parents and others have predicted exactly what we have now.
Mature educators in the 1940s , sounded the alarm when Progressive Education Ideology then replaced Traditional Education implemented by Clarence Beeby and the Labour Government. Beeby lived long enough to sorely regret what he had done as he observed the gradual decline in standards through the second half of the 20th century.
Progressive ideology insists schooling was to be a vehicle for changing society and bringing in socialism. This was always of more importance than academic and intellectual achievement. Well folks isn’t that what we now see, particularly starkly with the last Labour government.
Instead of focusing on students’ achievement they introduced transgender studies, Marxist critical race theory, history infused with cancel culture, etc. All in line with Progressive ideology.