Hey everyone, Now i know it’s been a while, but it has been christmas and new year, I sincerely hope everyone had a great time! Me and louise visisted her family over christmas, and spent new years back here, its been the best christmas i’ve had! Now, whatever happened too version 2? Well we are still waiting on the new site design to be given to us before we can go any further with that, how long it will be? I honestly have no idea.

Now, to the topic of the day. Education and curriculums!

Having a early morning chat with louise and my mother this morning, we got onto talking about education and schools, and how bad things are. In parts of the country, theres a scheme where the worst students get placed into a working environment a few days a week, and can even get paid for doing so, yet this option is not available for the good students. Am i missing something out?

To sum up the education system, the curriculum and educational authorites in england in one word, i have no option but to use the word Bullshit. I have a proposal for a different approach to educating the new generations, and this is how it would work.

School years would not change, they would remain the same as they are. There would be no change in Structure, Preschool - Nursery - Primary School - Secondary School - College - University.

It would involve bringing something in along the lines of the Grade Point Average that americans have. I would work it so that there was an assessment, not a test or exam, at the end of each shooling year from year 7, the beginning of secondary school. If standards weren’t met, not depending on the school but a national standard, then the year would have to be retaken. The standards would have to be along the lines of, attendance being above 85%, full passes on ‘Module Assignments’ which hold a pass rate of 75%(One or more of the assignments could be in pairs or groups), Holding less than 12 *discipline Points* which are given for fighting, talking back, skiving, bullying and other discplinary problems.

I realise that in the first year this may mean probably around 40% of the students retaking a year, but it would soon hit them hard and students would begin to work harder. As an incentive to make parents work harder with their children, a fine should also be in place for each year retaken, in levels depending on how far the student missed the year pass marks.

After the 5 years in secondary school, college should not be an option, all students should have to take and pass a-levels, as many jobs require having a minimum of atleast a-levels. I am currently job hunting and my highest level of qualification currently are my 11 GCSE’s, and i am having a hard time. There should be 3 a-levels taken, and all must be passed, or re-taken if they are failed, still holding the option to retake if the grade falls lower than a grade c.

Only once the A-Levels have been attained, should the option of apprenticeships and universities open up. Leaving the choice to the students for which to pursue.

In addition to all the above, subjects should change. Leaving the options available at year 10 still, but opening more options up, more specialised options, such as course devoted to those who whish to become doctors, or computer programmers, or politicians. Another subject should be introduced throughout, from year 7. This should be Life Skills, and all students must be required to pass with atleast 85% mark, another condition to move onto the next year of school. It would not be anything that is hard, merely teaching all students basic life skills, such as cooking, cleaning, ironing, respect for others, how to complete a CV, writing a letter (by hand). For this holding an assessment towards the end of the year, which would require the student to perform each action.

I may be tooting my own horn a bit, but i believe my idea for a better curriculum, as used above, would make this country a better place, it would help reduce crime, it would increase the national IQ levels, it would reduce the number of people claiming benefits, it would increase productivity on a national scale, it would better the futures for millions of families to be in years to come.

As a footnote, incase some smart politician reads this, i allow you to claim this idea as your own and put it into action, but under no circumstances will i retract this blog so if some media representative finds this after you claim it as your own and reveals you for a liar then its your own fault. But you can put it forward and say it was my idea, but i will not be interviewed!

Anyway, i know i am an idealist, and i know it will never happen.

I often think to myself, how different would the world be if the people in charge just had even an ounce of common sense.

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Tags: Curriculum, Education, Educational Authority, Making education better

This entry was posted on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 2:10 pm and is filed under People, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.