🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <48986@sun.uucp>, livesey@sun.uucp (Jon Livesey) writes:
> 

	[Quite a lot in defence of the old British education system.]

After writing all that stuff, I felt impelled to dig out some more
information about Maggie's proposed reforms, so here is some stuff from
"Testing Britain's School 'Reform'" in today's New York Times.   It's
only an excerpt, because I don't want to type in the whole thing, and
you can't make me.

        "In Britain, new national tests will be a key tool in the
    Government's effort to enact the most far-reaching changes in
    that nation's education system in 40 years.   Introduced in
    Parliament last November, the education reform bill calls for a
    unified national curriculum backed up with a series of tests
    administered to children at the ages of 7, 11, 14, and 16.  The
    overhaul of the system reflects [Maggie's] free-market philosophy
    and her committment to modernising British classrooms to strengthen
    the national economy.
    
        "Under the reform legislation, [.......] the test results of
    individual schools will be publicly reported, parents will be free
    to place their children in the nearby school of their choice,
    effectively forcing a school to bid for students by improving its
    test-rated performance.   [...................]
    
        "[.....]   This year, a new general certificate of secondary
    education exam is being introduced in England and Wales to replace
    the traditional ordinary, or O-level, examination.   Because it
    includes questions on such subjects as technology, business
    studies and design, the new test has required many secondary schools
    to broaden their course offerings.    Greater emphasis is placed on
    analysis and everyday skills; the old exam mainly gauged students'
    ability to memorize facts.   In addition, more than twenty percent
    of a student's grade under the new system will be determined not by
    a one-time sritten test, but by continuous assessment by teachers of
    course work and oral presentations.

    The article goes on to say that reform is needed, since British 
students seem to have caught the american disease, and are now some
years behind their German and Japanese contemporaries, especially in 
Mathematics.   It comments that to some extent this is a political
issue, but it says that there is a very wide range of support for
the reform across all parties, including the socialist Teacher's
Union, based on

	".. the recognition that the well-intentioned drive in the 
   1960's and 1970's to make schools more egalitarian, pulling 
   away from class patterns and abolishing state 'grammar' schools 
   in favour of all-inclusive 'comprehensive' schools, also 
   resulted in an erosion of standards."

    I have to say that I can't for the life of me find the basis for
the rather sinister interpretation that a previous poster put on all
this.   (teaching children to be second class citizens, etc).   It all
seems like good sense to me.   Any comments?

jon.