Elitists in British Education Win a Victory

[Left Leanings]

Take a look at this depressing story:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/9173679/Parents-triumph-in-the-battle-to-expand-grammar-school-places.html

A group of mothers have won the right to get places for their kids in grammar schools. In order to get into a grammar school, pupils have to pass an examination taken at 11 (the so-called 11+).

My mother sat this exam and failed, and was packed off to a 'secondary modern' school. No public examinations were offered at these schools, and pupils left at 15 - to work in the local mills, corner shops etc.

I myself would have failed the 11+ cos my Mathematics is poor, though I am proficient in other subjects. Luckily, for the most part, grammar schools had been abolished in the reforms known as 'comprehensivization in the 1960s. I was able to sit exams, and went onto university.

The rich of Britain want to stealthily make education more elitist. Many Tories would do away with comprehensive schools if they could. I cannot recall his name, but a Tory MP once stated that working-class education had been a disaster.

[Manic Impressive]

My parents forbid me to take the 11+ on principle that it was elitist .

"Theres no way a son of mine is going to some grammar school" :lol:

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

I would abolish comprehensive schools.

And Grammar schools are a good thing, it's more their form and the rest of the education system that turns them into the symbols of elitism that they have become.

There is no point having grammar schools if you are going to send the rest of the kids who are unfortunately not good at Maths, English and Science to comprehensive schools, whilst the best teachers go to the independent sector.

I've said time and again, grammar schools can really play a great role in the British education, taking care of those who want a traditional, academic education, if we replaced comprehensives, independent schools, academies and whatever other schools there are, with technical/vocational schools that didn't just throw non-traditionally academic children onto the scrapheap as a lot of comprehensives do, but gave them the chance to follow their own specific path, much as children in grammar schools do.

If you then loosened the entrance exam requirements (so that perhaps grammar schools and technical schools only had the right to choose 50% of their students, with some form of 11+ exam choosing the other 50% for them), then you'd have a strong educational system.

As it is, that will clearly not be happening in Britain for a long time. In fact, with the advent of academies and free schools, it looks like we are heading towards full-scale privatisation of education by the back-door.

[bricolage]

I've said time and again, grammar schools can really play a great role in the British education, taking care of those who want a traditional, academic education, if we replaced comprehensives, independent schools, academies and whatever other schools there are, with technical/vocational schools that didn't just throw non-traditionally academic children onto the scrapheap as a lot of comprehensives do, but gave them the chance to follow their own specific path, much as children in grammar schools do.
eh? there are 164 grammar schools in the UK out about 3000 secondary schools, you want to turn all the others into technical/vocational schools?

[Firebrand]

The trouble is that education under a capitalist system is based on
a) creating an effective (and in a developed society this means literate) workforce
b) reducing the risk of people self educating, and making sure that people learn what the ruling class want them to know
c) equipping the children of the ruling classes to become the ruling class themselves.

When viewed in this light it becomes clear that grammer schools were effectively abolished because there was a massive decline in the number of low skilled jobs. The level of education that was required for the majority of the work force increased as low skilled jobs were moved to china etc. Therefore the 11 plus system was no longer providing an effective workforce.

Since the education of the ruling classes is effectively carried out by private schools, the fuction of state schools becomes to provide functional knowledge required in an effective workforce while also destroying peoples urge to learn on their own initiative.

Originally the secondary moderns did both of these things but as requirements for a more educated workforce increased the secondary moderns could no longer fulfill the first of these requirements. The level of knowledge provided by the grammer schools on the other hand was ideal, however the grammer schools had been designed to educate an elite of intelligent students and give them as much education as possible. Not quite what was needed as it would give kids ideas that the ruling classes would prefer them not to have.

So the grammer schools were providing the functional knowledge needed in the job market and the secondary moderns were providing the necessary sense of helplessness and disillusionment with learning. What was the best solution to this problem well to combine the two of course.

There were mixed results of course, some of the new comprehensives did manage to give kids the love of learning and levels of knowledge that the ruling classed prefered them not to have but that was actually a blessing in diguise since it was important to maintain the illusion of upward mobility. And some of the new comps failed spectacularly to impart the necessary knowledge for a skilled workforce but this was also a blessing since there were still some low skilled jobs that needed doing.

Right now the job market is changing again, fewer jobs, massive youth unemploymenty and plans to raise the retirement age mean that it is now becoming vital to turn education into a purely financial matter, to ensure that kids dont pick up dangerous ideas from education but also too ensure that all the kids end up witht he functional skills employers want in order to maintain some kind of competetiveness for britain in the global market. Hence why they are trying to privatize schools.

[Left Leanings]

My parents forbid me to take the 11+ on principle that it was elitist .

"Theres no way a son of mine is going to some grammar school" :lol:

When my mum was young, everybody sat the 11+ to determine whether they want to secondary modern or grammar school. She narrowly failed the examination, and was told she would be allowed to resit it, cos she may well pass on the second attempt with some additional tuition.

But re-trying meant getting a parental signature. My nan was a single-parent who lodged with a non-relatives, and had to hand over all her wage in return for board and lodging. She refused to sign, cos she wouldn't have been able to afford the grammar school uniform, even if my mum would have passed.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

eh? there are 164 grammar schools in the UK out about 3000 secondary schools, you want to turn all the others into technical/vocational schools?

No, I think there should be more grammar schools, provided they are of good enough quality, of course. And of course within the framework I discussed. I'm under no illusion - as somebody who went to a Grammar School - that they are far from egalitarian as stand-alone institutions.