BBC Broadcasting House, Portland Place at the head of Regent Street, London (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The following is my contribution to the debate on radio 4 right now as sent today to The Today Programme FaceBook page:
“What is it about 6 years of Primary teaching that so many kids haven’t reached ‘benchmarks’ in reading, writing and arithmetic – all of which could be taught in one year to ANY child. – I have observed how quickly any child from any background teach themselves to operate computers and can seriously speed type while texting!? Ans: classes are too big and there is too much casual scolding which cripples a child’s confidence… imagine, you or me in a class at adult college being ticked off for some petty thing or other or not grasping a concept: would you go back to that class and teacher? Get cameras into classrooms and let’s see what really goes on.
And many of the failing NEETS kids around here are amazingly astute at drug dealing and coming up with whizzes and wheezes for going about their business undetected….
Why is UK more or less the only country that allows kids to go too early into secondary and then, even if they haven’t reached benchmarks, meaning that they will never keep up – when most countries hold kids back until they can handle secondary?
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