Has our education been made a priority?
The importance of a good education cannot be denied. However, it is
pretty clear that education has not been made a fundamental part of any
political party’s campaign for the election this May. What seems more important
to tackle this year are the NHS crisis, the immigration ‘problem’, and the
imminent threat of a terrorist attack. Yes, all these are important but so is
education.
It’s not as if government can even suggest that there are no problems
left to solve. 2014 saw teachers on strike; worry over whether qualifications
are being ‘dumbed down’; and complaints about the soaring university fees which
are going to hit us with a tough debt that we may never even pay off.
What we don’t remember is that 18 years ago that education was made a
priority by Tony Blair. His whole campaign centred on it and the importance of
teaching us properly. If our education has been anything to go by, we’ve done
pretty well. We’ve had the support, both of parents and teachers; we’ve had the
resources to enhance our learning. We’ve been the lucky ones. But there seems
to be children across the country not benefitting from their education. If in
some cases you can even call it an education. If government still focused on
it, maybe children themselves would pay a bit more attention in class and value
it.
It sounds like a teacher problem but it can’t solely be that. Teachers
are more than well qualified and inspiring. And if they’re not, training needs to
be provided. Perhaps the government should realise children don’t learn from
cramming revision in for tests or even GCSE exams. This is something many a
teacher gets. All the last-minute knowledge is forgotten either mid-exam or as
they walk out of the hall. Of course there needs to be some sort of testing
system but it clearly isn’t working for every child. It aggravates students
that qualifications are being called ‘easy’ yet we’re working our socks off
because we’re told how important they are to succeed and ‘make something of
ourselves’.
An interesting curriculum is needed.
Everything a child learns can be put into context so they can apply it. It can
be engaging by simply switching up routine learning tasks and finding new
innovative ways to teach. Perhaps our education would be more beneficial if we
were taught things that actually matter to our lives. For example: how to
budget effectively; how to prepare for presentations and interviews in the
future; and simple childcare and supervision expectations.
A strong focus of the government needs to be on primary education, not
secondary where students seem to achieve at least the minimum of their
potential. If the basics aren’t learned early on, perhaps even while at nursery
or pre-school, how can we expect children to excel? Plus, the nation is becoming
ever more diverse that we need to provide for each child from every
demographic, economic background, culture, religion and English speaking
ability. If a child can’t speak English, they need a scheme to be taught it. If
children are struggling to read when they’re in high school, then why has this
problem not been nipped in the bud quicker?
So why are finance and the economy more important than teaching and
learning? Surely, if we are educated to the best level possible, then we can
expect to see improvement in every other sector of business, finance and
government because we will all hopefully be graduating into those jobs.
It’s not like anything can be
changed now, we’re too close to the election, but in the next five years maybe
we will see our education being taken seriously rather than just a topic for
debate on television. Let’s hope the next government stops playing with our
future and takes education from being another business to what it really is:
education.
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