Completely misguided government edict #1674656563365677

[suityou01]

Genetics comes into play here - clever parents have better paid jobs. They also are more likely to have naturally clever kids. Where you have got bright kids with a crappy homelife, I agree that it's worth going the extra mile to give those kids the best possible chance. But I think many schools already do that.

So poor people are all thick?

[sasguru]

So poor people are all thick?

Yes. And thick people are all poor.
Look at you, DP, BB, SB, eek.

[eek]

From now every schoolis getting an additional £900 a year for every child that has been on free school meals.

Given the amount of additional money many schools will be getting for these children they really should be achieving something for that money.

[vetran]

As NAT said its an investment in breaking welfare dependency. I agree that the effort & skill put in by the parents has a massive effect, I would also suggest there is a genetic component as skills & behaviour clearly pass from parents despite parents being absent (willingly or unwillingly).

I'm sorry despite all the bluster to the contrary not everyone has the ability to be academic (MS's point) or the will to do it. The one size fits all academic education is counter productive, I don't care if my mechanic, carpenter, builder has a degree. I do care that my car designer, furniture designer or Architect has a degree level education (to me a suitable vocational qualification is acceptable).

Go back to selecting degree students based on academic ability and taking 10%.

[doodab]

The biggest problem with the education system is that it's been used as a political football for decades. After that i'd say a lack of capacity in some areas, and little room for expansion, are issues that need to be addressed. They'd also do well to reduce class sizes in schools in less well off areas as these have the most disruptive pupils.

I think it would be a good idea to make a plan to fix it and then work out what it costs rather than vice versa.

[SimonMac]

So poor people are all thick?

We will find out when your kids do their GCSE's

[mudskipper]

So poor people are all thick?

I think the term I used is "more likely"

Manual jobs pay less than jobs which require brain power. If pay packets reflected effort put in, many of us would be on free school meals...

[NotAllThere]

But the point is that extra education is treating the symptom, not the cause. Poorer kids have poorer life chances, do less well at school, suffer poorer health over their lifetimes, are more likely to have mental health problems and a dozen other things, because they are poor. There is a ton of evidence that parentel socio economic status and not genetics is the primary factor.

Expecting schools to redress the balance when the country is being run in a way that serves to widen the inequality that causes the problem in the first place is pissing in the wind.

On of the causes of poverty is lack of education, which is brought about by having poor (in many senses of the word) parents. Therefore this extra money is addressing a cause, in the long term. It is clearly not a universal panacea, but it might well help. I think it's a good idea.

From now every schoolis getting an additional £900 a year for every child that has been on free school meals.

So we need to reduce the number of kids who qualify

Given the amount of additional money many schools will be getting for these children they really should be achieving something for that money.

True. But I doubt it will be measured.

[doodab]

As NAT said its an investment in breaking welfare dependency. I agree that the effort & skill put in by the parents has a massive effect, I would also suggest there is a genetic component as skills & behaviour clearly pass from parents despite parents being absent (willingly or unwillingly).

I'm sorry despite all the bluster to the contrary not everyone has the ability to be academic (MS's point) or the will to do it. The one size fits all academic education is counter productive, I don't care if my mechanic, carpenter, builder has a degree. I do care that my car designer, furniture designer or Architect has a degree level education (to me a suitable vocational qualification is acceptable).

Go back to selecting degree students based on academic ability and taking 10%.

I think part of the problem is that a lot of these 'less skilled' jobs are seen as menial and pay very lttile, hence people who might be ideally suited to them are disuaded from persuing them in favour of meaningless degrees.

[Doggy Styles]

I think part of the problem is that a lot of these 'less skilled' jobs are seen as menial and pay very lttile, hence people who might be ideally suited to them are disuaded from persuing them in favour of meaningless degrees.

That's how it looks to me as well.