The madness of a State education system..
phil
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,997115,00.html
Roger Watts
<ph...@nospam.v3.net> writes
>did someone say rationing? yes sir..
>
>http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,997115,00.html
I dare say that in town tonight, there is a large proportion of people
who are not eating at their first choice restaurant. The madness of
private eating out? Rationing? Oui garcon.
The sort of statistics put out by this article are meaningless. 'Up to
60% of parents at some schools do not get their first choice.' I love
that 'up to' phrase. 'Up to £2000 on your old car'. Sharp intake of
breath from salesman - "I could go to £200" - that's up to £2000.
In my N Midlands town, I estimate that 95% of parents get their 1st
choice primary and probably 90% their first choice secondary.
What alternative is this article putting forward? A nationally
consistent admissions policy? Alleluja! But what policy? The examples
put forward are of non-selective distance from school. This will lead
to exactly the sort of selection by estate agent syndrome quoted.
Listen to screams of those who paid over the odds to get a house in the
catchment area, when some developer builds a new estate nearer and they
still can't get in. I'm all for a national policy, but don't expect the
Church schools who select by various means to applaud.
Build onto popular schools. Maybe, but why doesn't your very popular
bijou restaurant expand? Because expansion might destroy the very thing
that makes it popular. Not all schools *can* expand and many don't
*want* to expand.
London has peculiar problems, including insufficient schools in some
areas. Apart from the middle classes who wear their child's fancy
school uniform like a badge of their parental commitment, most people
want a school at the bottom of the road where their child can go, with
their friends, and get a decent education. Let's raise standards in all
schools, not shift kids around like customers from one trendy restaurant
to the next.
--
Roger Watts
AndyA
"Roger Watts" <ro...@roger-watts.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1rKq7JLMfXE$Ew...@roger-watts.demon.co.uk...
Exactly. I don't get this fixation so many people seem to have with
the notion of "parental choice" in education. It sounds nice in theory
and technically parents have this at the moment, but in practice it is
only possible in a meaningful way if you have lots of spare capacity
in the system, which is a waste of resources, and even then the best
schools will still be oversubscribed.
--
AndyA