dsmg wrote:[quote="sejintenejine, but given the poor education of many of those going into the teaching profession money is not a factor. What is needed is an order of magnitude improvement in education of wouldbe teachers (and all the rest). First of all, tough discipline in classrooms with no heed paid to parents complaints about multihour and weekend detentions. Next, end of year exams for all pupils and those who do not get a good mark (and make it tough) have to stay down for another year. Third; competence exams for teachers; spelling, grammar, basic maths, civics. There should be a zero tolerence on English and basic maths for ALL teachers. Fourth; a requirement on parents that their children speak English before coming to school; failure after 3 months warning equals inadequate care in the home resulting in the child being taken into care immediately
Shouldn't we just gas them?[/quote]
Nitrous oxide (or wasn't your teacher up to that)?
It was said that, when I did A levels, that they were avbout the same standard as after 1 1/2 years at a US Ivy League university. I wonder what the comparison is now.
More seriously, the other gas should be reserved for those who allow standards to slip, those who want teachers to get away with poor pupîl results, those who don't allow teachers EFFECTIVE punishments for poor or disruptive behaviour, those who consider that even those who don't learn should have equally top jobs to those prepared to work ..... That of course would deal with the national overcrowding and work shortage situation though of course we could adapt the Chinese system; no children allowed
To give you an idea of the practical side I was a trainer in a bank dealing with interest and other charges. All applicants had to have at least a C grade GCSE pass in Maths but many of those were incompetent so I made up a simple, work based, test paper. (Unlimited time, unlimited scrap paper, no calculators)
With a year calendar on the wall: "What is the date 93 days after May 3rd?
There was a + and - question; add two numbers and put the answer in the space below. Then add a third number, answer in space, then from that deduct a number (answer in space below) and finally add a number to that. All numbers were five figures plus two decimals; it never went negative. Out of the first 17 applicants to take the paper 8 did not get either of those or any one of the other three equally job related questions correct.
My neighbour, the deputy head of a large state school, stated that it is the duty of employers and certainly not schools to teach such maths and we shouldn't be allowed to set tests; that school was immediately blacklisted.