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Highlands Today

Britain Is Struggling To Improve Education

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By None Selected

Published: September 12, 2007

Daily Telegraph, London, on Britain's schools:

Educational failure figures in all of Britain's most disturbing social problems: crime, lack of aspiration, and drug and alcohol abuse. The consequences of what is euphemistically called "underachievement" among significant proportions of school pupils are now permeating almost every aspect of civil society.
And at the other end of the schooling spectrum – where large numbers of children seem to be achieving outstanding examination results – there is cause for concern.

Even after the enormous efforts made to make exams more accessible to a wider range of pupils, the results have shown little actual improvement between 1996 and 2006. ...

In spite of $1 billion being spent on various programs for keeping children in school, the figures for truancy have failed to improve over the decade. ...

The new Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, has produced a fresh set of harsh recommendations that will supposedly compel parents and schools to co-operate in the enforcement of proper behaviour and encouragement to learn. ...

Perhaps before announcing any further initiatives, ministers should ask themselves why their previous, heavily funded ones have failed. The Conservatives, meanwhile, do seem to be asking meaningful questions.

Their study of the public services has produced a great deal of thoughtful and painstaking research that might result in a serious reassessment of educational priorities.

Asahi Shmbun, Tokyo, on Japanese politics:

Politicians today have simply got to stop clinging to the "good old days." They must fundamentally change their collective mind-set. They need to grasp that no matter how effective they may be politically, they do not deserve to remain in politics if they lack transparency in their monetary dealings and cannot offer adequate explanations to the public about their behavior. They should take it upon themselves to write and enforce laws that require thorough disclosure of the sources and expenditures of political funds.

Until politicians become fully capable of abiding by a firm code of ethical conduct, the current "domino resignations" cannot be stopped, nor will this or future administrations be able to regain the trust of the public, which they need to survive.

Healthy tension has returned to politics since opposition parties won control of the Upper House in July. This can be seen in the recent spate of resignations. We hope these developments will continue to go in the right direction. We also hope the ruling and opposition parties will compete on replacing the old political mind-set with the new.

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