Schools failing their customers.

Scary article in The Sunday Times today by Harriet Sergeant which, as a parent, confirms my worst fears.

The managing director of a medium-sized IT company . . . interviewed 52 graduates — all educated in state schools. On paper they looked “brilliant students”. Each had three As at A-level and a 2:1 degree. [at the interview] half arrived late. Only three of the 52 walked up to the managing director, looked him in the eye, shook his hand and said, “Good morning.” The rest “just ambled in”. When he asked them to solve a problem, only 12 had come equipped with a notebook and pencil.

The three who had greeted him proved the strongest candidates and he hired them. Within a year they were out because of their “lackadaisical” attitude. They did not turn up on time; for the first six months a manager had to check all their emails for spelling and grammar; they did not know how to learn. It was the first time they had ever been asked to learn on their own. Their ability to “engage in business” was “incredibly” disappointing and “at 5.30 on the dot they left the office”.

This year the managing director has joined the 20% of companies recruiting overseas. “We are an English company but we have no English staff. It’s just too much trouble,” he said.

Sir Terry Leahy, CEO of Tesco, put it bluntly.

Too many children have been leaving school after 11 or 13 years of compulsory education “without the basic skills to get on in life and hold down a job”. He said 5m adults were functionally illiterate and 17m could not add up properly. “On-the-job training” cannot act as a “bandage or sticking plaster” for “the failure of our education system”.

I was fortunate to grow up in the 50's and 60's on a council estate attending state schools and can recall the teachers that inspired me as well as those that abused their position of power, both verbally and physically. They influenced the subjects I absorbed and those that I rejected, some of which, particularly languages, I regret to this day. I simply don't believe that any of my teachers would have failed the 'Maths Test for 11 year olds' recently reported in the press or, as I experienced in my children's school reports, the shocking spelling ability of teachers. Now, I was no swot and certainly no angel but, by my parents example, I realised that punctuality and politeness are fundamental to achieving your objectives - life is a negotiation and you are immediately at a disadvantage if you turn up late, dress inappropriately, are disrespectful and ill prepared. And this was in an age, unlike today, when getting a job was a given - I had choices. Surely candidates today should be trying even harder using every trick in the book to achieve their ambitions - or have they really reached such a point of despair that their rejection has become a self-fulfilling prophecy?

At every stage we have a system in which the expediency of politicians and the ideology of the educational establishment take precedence over the interests of pupils.

We have children who can barely read and write scoring high marks in their Sats because it makes the school, and therefore politicians, look good. We have exam boards competing to offer the lowest pass mark because it allows heads to fulfil their GCSE targets. We have pupils pushed into easy subjects at A-level — which excludes them from applying to a top university — because it benefits the school. And we have universities that offer a 2:1 degree, as the IT company director put it, to “anyone who bothers to sit down and take the exam”.

I do not, for one minute, believe that our young generation are stupid or lazy but I fear that too many of them have become the victims of a number of failed political 'experiments' creating confusion amongst both students and teachers. These kids are our future - not only have we given them the job of sorting out the financial and environmental disasters caused by the profligate waste of natural resources and conspicuous consumption of my generation but we have also managed to prepare them to 'fail' this daunting challenge (because 'winning' is not politically correct!).
Here are a few suggestions which, of course, you can correct me if i'm wrong:

• Life is not fair - get on with it!
• Stop calling the older generation by their Christian names (I know, we started it because we didn't want to feel old). You need to distinguish between your peer group (where you can use your slang and show how big you are using swear words) and your elders (who need to earn your respect by leading by example, including on TV programmes). I am NOT your friend but I can be caring and friendly (at the risk of being accused a pedophile and ending up on some secret list!).
• Teachers and Policemen are there, after parents, to set and enforce the acceptable boundaries of good behaviour. They need to be re-empowered to deal with minor incursions with the proverbial 'clip round the ear' or upsets with a 'hug' without fear of litigation - but, if such trust is abused, their punishment should be harsh.
• Let's stop labeling an individual's weaknesses and start recognising their strengths and skills. The school curriculum should develop individuals - it is not a hospital to only attend to problems.
• Bring back 'streaming'. Children develop at different speeds and at different times. Use this to pull children up rather than holding them back. Some of the most disruptive students are simply bored.
• Being 'dumb' is NOT cool and being a geek or a swot is not 'boring' - just ask Bill Gates.
• Find something that you like doing so much that you'd do it for nothing - then, do it so well that people will pay you!
• Starting off in life thinking that 'debt' is OK because everyone else is in debt is a fallacy caused, in large part, by our political and economic environment. Change it!
• Success is not measured in monetary terms but in achievements so value who you are more than what you have. That doesn't mean that being financially rewarded for your achievements is wrong but I would suggest that Bill Gates is getting more satisfaction by how he is spending his fortune than the years he spent earning it.

I hope that you can think of some more.