Todays educational standards

[coop]

Students are revolting because of the increased tuition fees at Universities. Why, I ask do so many require degrees to undertake work, that in the past has been done , very ably by persons who were educated to ‘O’ and ‘A’ level. The demands of the roles have not increased. What has, in my opinion has decreased, is the level of secondary education in England and the quality of todays’O’ and ‘A’ level qualifications. A lot of today’s degrees seem equivalent to an ‘A’ level in the 70’s and today’s ‘A’ levels seem lower in quality to the ‘O’ levels of the 70’s.

 

What students of today should be demonstrating about is the level of education received in Schools. Does anyone agree or disagree with me?

 

Why have educational standards appear to have plummeted? Comments please

[Joe Momma]

You've missed an apostrophe in your thread title

[LaughingCow]

Secondary Education standards do need to be improved but with the cuts I don't think it's very likely!

 

One way it could be achieved is by teachers having more control in the classroom including more powers of discipline. If a child doesn't want to learn his 8 times table but will get a punishment he actually would rather avoid (as opposed to see me at 3 o clock and write 10 lines) then it won't take him long to realise that he's probably best just learning his 8 times table and getting on with it.

 

Another way is having teachers who truly care about their subjects and pass their enthusiasm on to the children, this seemed to have the best effect on people when I was at school.

 

As for the point about all sorts of jobs requiring degrees before you can do them, I think the answer is something to do with Tony Blair and his famous 'Education x3' speech which meant get as many people going to university as possible even if the course they do is worthless or of little value.

[Strix]

Did you see the documentary last week presented by a media student?

 

There are highly qualified academics leaving academia due to the direct pressure to 'pass' students who should have 'fail' stamped firmly across their work. The reasons they are being given is the loss of tuition fees for the succeeding years of the course (failure year 1 will leave a 2 year deficit in revenue from fees)

 

It's a mess

 

I don't think we'll be encouraging our child into university at this rate - although both her parents have degrees

[cazzamuttitt]

I completely agree, and I think I am 'qualified' to comment.

 

I completed my 'A' Levels in 1991 - and went to University in 2007. It appears to me that the B and C grades I received back in the day are a lot easier to obtain by far. You should see the standard of some of the work that fellow students were getting a 2:1 for!

 

In relation to the standard of teaching, I practically taught myself. I received a First Class Degree but I am no genius, I have an IQ of about 100.

 

There is no way I would pay £9,000 a year to watch lecturers reading of the slides I could read at home, and to get 8 hours tutor support PER YEAR max!

[squidge00]

Jobs are so scarce today that employers can pick and choose and if that means they choose a degree student for a low-skilled job over someone who doesn't have the same academic qualifications then they'll do it.

 

In my personal experience, the result is that you get graduates doing menial jobs and are totally wasted in their skills and abilities (and they are also taking jobs that should be occupied by people who are less qualified).

[squidge00]

There is no way I would pay £9,000 a year to watch lecturers reading of the slides I could read at home, and to get 8 hours tutor support PER YEAR max!

 

My sister is at Uni at the moment and although she is not paying huge tuition fees, she receives tutoring for only 5 months of the year. Her course finished last week and she won't be back in Uni until October. Imagine if you were paying £9K a year to have such minimal contact time?!

[LaughingCow]

I completely agree, and I think I am 'qualified' to comment.

 

I completed my 'A' Levels in 1991 - and went to University in 2007. It appears to me that the B and C grades I received back in the day are a lot easier to obtain by far. You should see the standard of some of the work that fellow students were getting a 2:1 for!

 

In relation to the standard of teaching, I practically taught myself. I received a First Class Degree but I am no genius, I have an IQ of about 100.

 

There is no way I would pay £9,000 a year to watch lecturers reading of the slides I could read at home, and to get 8 hours tutor support PER YEAR max!

I agree.

 

I'm currently in my final year of a Law degree. After Easter we will have around 4 hours of contact time per week. Before Easter it was 10 hours at the maximum.

 

My degree requires a lot of reading and self teaching but the state of the course particularly seminars is just a joke. We never get through all the stuff and a lot of it is rushed.

 

Often lectures are not finished in time and we have to teach ourselves the stuff we should be being lectured on as well as our further reading.

 

Add to this tutors who are only available to talk in their 'office hour' once a week and late feedback (still waiting for something we should have been given back on Thursday)

 

I don't like paying £3,000 a year for this. To pay £9,000 a year would be even worse and a real smack in the face for people who think education is going to improve with the rise in tuition fees. The universities reckon they'll need to charge £9,000 just to keep the status quo. I'd say they need to improve their service to paying students before they try that one.

[Strix]

Jobs are so scarce today that employers can pick and choose and if that means they choose a degree student for a low-skilled job over someone who doesn't have the same academic qualifications then they'll do it.

 

In my personal experience, the result is that you get graduates doing menial jobs and are totally wasted in their skills and abilities (and they are also taking jobs that should be occupied by people who are less qualified).

They're not wasted - that's the level of education required to find somebody to do a job that's even half literate these days

 

Just read some of the claptrap posted on here requesting help with dissertations - not that half of them can even spell what they're asking for

[Darth Vader]

Secondary Education standards do need to be improved but with the cuts I don't think it's very likely!

 

One way it could be achieved is by teachers having more control in the classroom including more powers of discipline. If a child doesn't want to learn his 8 times table but will get a punishment he actually would rather avoid (as opposed to see me at 3 o clock and write 10 lines) then it won't take him long to realise that he's probably best just learning his 8 times table and getting on with it.

 

 

Seems like it has improved since you experienced it, children are expected to know their 8 times table in primary school.

 

I agree though, the schools are powerless, especially with the lack of support from many parents, and the general lack of respect for the teaching profession. Perhaps if teachers got paid 3 times more, and you had to wait a fortnight before you could have an appointment to see them, then there'd be more respect. I don't see much Dr-bashing on the forum.

 

The extorionate tuition fees being introduced will create a great void in the UK. Employers have had it good in the UK, paying low wages for graduates. Now, graduates will not be able to afford to accept low wages, and as employers will not want to offer them, there will be a lot less students choosing to study at universtfy. Graduates from overseas will have to fill that voild.

Edited April 11, 2011 by Darth Vader