The price your child is paying for a broken education system
All of the tutors I know are booked up. They get calls every week from concerned parents of children from all different key stages, all different levels and the reason for contacting a tutor is the same.
“My child has had 4 science teachers this year” … “My child’s confidence levels are at the worst they have ever been” … “I think they may have gaps” … “She/he isn’t being pushed”.
You know – Most of the children I teach have such astronomical gaps in their knowledge it is hard to fathom. Some examples include – not being able to read the map of the world or understanding what continents are 3 weeks before sitting a GCSE geography paper. Another example was a year 11 student who, in January had not even completed a full English essay yet … Whilst this may seem trivial, these students are at the end of their educational career before embarking on their A Levels or the world of work. I can list many other episodes which took my breath away. Support and expertise just isn’t there. I am not at all suggesting every teacher is not an expert – I have encountered many children who have experienced excellent guidance and teaching but unfortunately these seem to be far and few between …
The quality of teaching is so poor in most schools! Staff retention levels are at an all-time low because teachers are over worked and underpaid, the curriculum is dull and not engaging at all and the amount of content pupils are expected to retain and then regurgitate is at a complete polar opposite to the skills they actually need to be a well rounded and hard working citizens.
I, and those tutors with whom I am in contact with feel like we are filling in the gaps of the children that can afford tutoring – what about those that cannot?
How many of you can relate? How many of you hear the same kind of thing from your children?
I am not particularly sure of what the answer is myself but I do know that at the moment – thousands of children are paying the price for a government that is more concerned with test scores than anything else including the mental health of teachers and pupils and preparing the UK’s young people with the issues that they really should be prepared for like financial literacy, relationship intelligence and awareness and basic life skills before exam results.
What are your views?
