How amazing that the Government's proposed changes to the education system should be necessary and, even more so, that anyone should find the proposals objectionable.
When I was at school, it was taken for granted that learning to read, write and spell properly was an esential part of education, as was gaining an ability and understanding in basic arithmetic. We also learnt, or were encouraged to learn, enough history and geography to gain a basic understanding of the world around us. Our examinations required us to be able to assimilate and reproduce the education of a year, or more, in a way that truly tested our knowledge and ability to apply it.
That a Government can now trumpet its intention to 'return' to such a system is an admission of the abject failure of successive governments and hordes of 'Educationalists' over decades, during which time we have produced vast numbers of poorly educated young people. These youngsters, unsurprisingly, have found themselves too often ill-equipped for the real world of work and have ended up as unemployed, even unemployable.
Today's school children appear to be completely disinterested in learning; those who go to university too often take courses of no use whatsoever. The Government is absolutely right to take steps to change this, in part at least, but what of the lost generations ?
