16 May 2007

It's not just about the academically gifted

The Conservative decision to support City Academies and Technology Colleges is partially right. There are loads of balances to be struck over getting the right size and structure of school to make them manageable, yet sufficiently flexible as to offer a true comprehensive education.

David Willets mentions the need to use schools as a vehicle to improve social mobility - he is dead right; schools should be such that anyone with academic talent can thrive. But, once again, the need for schools to inspire and deliver for those without academic talent seems to have been forgotten.

Comprehensive Schools should be about delivering a comprehensive range of education, making sure that those who are less academic can have other talents nurtured. We need a return to more practical based education, taking the theory out of Food Tech, making it about cooking. The same for woodwork and metalwork and why not throw in more practical science and a bit of bricklaying and electrical knowledge. All young adults need to leave education knowing that they can contribute to society and knowing that they have skills - schools are not just about academia. (and please don't tell me that is what vocational GCSEs are about - because, in the main, they are not!!)

Try to imagine how demotivated you would feel if you were a non-academic in today's "GCSEs are everything" education system?

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1 Comments:

Blogger Jeremy Jacobs said...

Not sure I agree with you but I would like to see something more than the "academic" only side to education. Sports academies, technical schools and so on IMHO are required.

9:39 PM  

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