Apparently there is a public sector strike going on...

[DodgyAgent]

10k won´t buy much in the private system though.

If they doubled it and gave out vouchers and placed the control in the hands of the consumer the savings in terms of crime, health and unemployment would be considerable.

[vetran]

Some people do seem to believe that ejumakation is all about pleasing employers; I've said a few things about that in a longer and slightly unstructured post.

I sort of agree that education should have more than a focus on just getting a job, however the people who are recruiting the school leavers are the Schools real customer. They want balanced and skilled people. They are saying they aren't getting that.

We have all seen products that look beautiful that don't work, they lose out to products that just work even if they are ugly.

Dyson's first vacuum was very pretty, it worked better than many other vacuums but it had issues. He changed the design a number of times to carry on competing. However an ugly vacuum would probably replace it if it proves to out perform it and its cheaper.

[Mich the Tester]

I sort of agree that education should have more than a focus on just getting a job, however the people who are recruiting the school leavers are the Schools real customer. They want balanced and skilled people. They are saying they aren't getting that.

´Balanced´ is a bit vague, but I kind of understand from it that they want people with more skills than simply coding or counting or ´communicating´.

But this ´skills´ thing; what skills are we talking about? Business will always have to offer some kind of training to turn raw recruits into productive employees; I wonder whether some businesses are realistic in their expectations.

[vetran]

That's not what your post says. It says


It does NOT say that 85% think it doesn't meet their needs. It does NOT say that 85% think it needs improving.

1/3 are not satisfied, they believe it needs improving. If a third of your customers were not satisfied then you wouldn't sell much.

85%

satisfied
ˈsatɪsfʌɪd
adjective
contented; pleased.

They are not contented or pleased. They believe it needs improvement.

85% want them to focus on these, this suggests that they believe its important and suggests they are not confident its good enough.

[Mich the Tester]

If they doubled it and gave out vouchers and placed the control in the hands of the consumer the savings in terms of crime, health and unemployment would be considerable.

But there's the issue; it depends on the consumer, and as I said, the private system has an advantage in that most parents are highly skilled, educated, motivated people who have put a lot of effort into bringing up their kids. A few see the boarding system as a means to outsource upbringing, but I think they're a minority among private school parents. I'm sure most state school parents do their best too, but some don't have the skills to do what my mum did, teaching me to read, or what my father did in making sure I stayed fit. A few also don't have the inclination to do that or the ambition to give their kids a good start, so the state school often has a harder job than the private school.

[TheFaQQer]

85% want them to focus on these, this suggests that they believe its important and suggests they are not confident its good enough.

There is nothing in the report that you quote from which supports your assertion that the CBI survey "suggests 85% of them think its doesn't or needs improving."

If I'm reading the report wrong, which I concede I may well be, just post the page number and paragraph which suggests that 85% of CBI respondents say that they believe that primary schools are failing at teaching numeracy and literacy.

[TheFaQQer]

Do they even care?

They are the customer they want a product that works, their survey suggests 85% of them think its doesn't or needs improving. Is it any wonder they are going to competitor?

The survey summary says "Firms want primary schools to focus on developing literacy and numeracy (85%)".

How many CBI respondents recruit directly from primary school?

[vetran]

The survey summary says "Firms want primary schools to focus on developing literacy and numeracy (85%)".

How many CBI respondents recruit directly from primary school?

How many school leavers can't read or write effectively?

oh quite a few

CBI: too many school leavers 'underequipped for life' | National Literacy Trust

oh look even the teachers (under Labour) thought they were doing a bad job

17% of school leavers 'functionally illiterate'

Although literacy in primary schools is a key focus, the emphasis can be lost in secondary schools, according to the study, which revealed that nearly one-fifth of 16 to 19-year-olds have a reading age at or below 11. This means their maths skills are limited to little more than basic arithmetic - putting the UK at a higher rate of innumeracy than many other industrialised countries.

In addition, 17% of 16- to 19-year-olds are functionallly illiterate, meaning they cannot handle much more than straightforward questions and would not understand allusion or irony.

The study found teenagers' average reading scores had risen between 1948 and 1960 and remained "remarkably constant" between 1960 and 1988. Between 1997 and 2004, scores had "gently" risen and then plateaued. But they discovered little improvement in teenagers' writing between 1979 and 2004.

So get it right in Primary schools and follow in Secondary.