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Friday 20 July 2007

Leave our children alone!

Once again in the news is Ofsted and any and all loosely connected organisations saying our children need to study this and that without a single regard for the children they discuss.

In the UK is it fairly well known that our children start school at an earlier age than the vast majority of our neighbours in Europe and Scandinavia. Not only that but the summer holidays are much shorter. We force our children to learn. From starting school aged 3 1/2 until finishing at 16 or 18 we do not teach our children anything instead we force feed them information so that at various stages along the way the schools themselves are able to claim this and that and that they are better than all the others.

It is not about our children. It is about schools sitting pretty on the top of some table that bares no relevance whatsoever to the children they teach.

It is not about our children. It is all about organisations like Ofsted who like the government force our schools to do this and that without any regard for the children under their remit.

It is not about our children. It is all about a government concerned purely with statistics.

The list is almost endless. It is not about the children but it is about anything but. There is a clear picture of how we compare to our European and Scandinavian neighbours that says there is proof that forcing our children to start school earlier and that forcing our children to have a longer school year does noting at all for the strength of our childrens education. In point of fact the exact opposite is true. Our children, at all ages, languish behind their European and Scandinavian peers.

Our children are our future. While it would be nice to have one on one tutoring that is unlikely ever to happen. The next best thing is to have our teachers, who try and do a magnificent job in very very trying circumstances, realise those children who are not quite as bright as other pupils then offering that child something extra.

There is a lot wrong within our education system and not a lot right. Putting everything wrong will be a long arduous task if indeed it could ever be put right. Putting our children first instead of some purely contrived league tables would go a long way in the effort to correct all the wrongs.

I know, I know. None of this, especially the part about putting children first is never likely to happen whilst too many organisation have vested interests in the education system. Still, a parent such as I, can dream.

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