Dumbing down...is it the end of sensible decisions?

Why is this in Pets GabriellaG54? Spelling bees?

I read this earlier today and it’s taken me until now to calm down! They’ll be letting the blind have a driving licence next.....

I thought it was about dumb animals as well.

Isn't it

Pet hates?

I saw this too and had to look at it twice. Writing off for a position as headmistress !!

Maths & English qualifications are an entry requirement. Why re test the same material?

Unless the DoE doesnf trust IT'S OWN maths and english awards?

The maths and spelling tests are a continuation of unnecessary testing that pervades the educational establishment.
The only justification for them is that some of the apparent qualifications for entry are forged.

I often read the letters my young grandson brings home from school. I invariably find spelling/grammatical errors. Perhaps it is now so difficult to recruit teachers that anything goes. After all, they are only going to teach kids...

It is admin and support staff that write the letters. And since they are the first to go every time a new academy trust takes over and has a "shake up" recruitment and retainment off good support/admin staff will suffer!

These tests are an unnecessary extra layer of cost/ admin. Teachers should have GCSE maths and English, why do they need to take an extra test?

The tests are rubbish btw.

If you pay peanuts.........

In Scotland it is necessary to have degree level qualifications to have a teaching post.
B Sc, MA or equivalent plus post grad certificate in education OR B Ed - 4 years.

Many years ago while working in ILEA I was horrified to find that a GCSE level subject could be taught by someone whose only qualification was their own GCSE in the subject.

Like most teachers, I have mentored lots of students.
I remember only one who was advised that teaching might not be the career for her. She was doing some (supervised ) marking of the work of my Primary7 class and carefully changed shining to shinning, dining to dinning etc. When I asked why, I was told that she's heard something about doubling the letter!!!

She had applied for teacher training in Scotland with a 3 year degree in art from an English university and simply had no grasp of grammar. She literally didn't last the course.

Scottish results not been so good lately, have they?

I heard on the radio last night that police recruits now need a degree and this is causing disquiet amongst some.

I think this is a proposal not implemented yet.

I think it would be a disaster. I think the main reasons social mobility has slowed down is because degrees have been made mandatory for so many professions.

In the past most professions had a host of ways of getting into them from O level to degree level, the less your education, the longer the (paid) on the job training.

I think it is time the professions, whether lawyers, accountants, nurses or policeman returned to the old system of being open to all the better. The only professions where a degree whould be necessary are ones like medicine, teaching and those where a large knowledge base is required before you can even begin to work in the subject.

Add comment | Report | Private message eazybee Sat 13-Jul-19 19:54:50
Scottish results not been so good lately, have they ?


(Not sure what your point is meant to be )
The opposite eazybee

I agree MOnica. Do we really need all these degrees and how relevant are they!

I once asked a friend what his son was reading at university and, with a shrug of the shoulders, he replied,, “ I am not sure... ............. something like underwater basketweaving.”. I also wonder how useful some of these degrees are.

That seems to sum it up.

Before I get shouted at, I am not against university education. I just think that hands-on experience, along with theory, can be much more useful in many cases.

Th problem about degree only professions is that they are so rigid and presupposes that everyone goes to university at 18 and is prepared to take on a major debt.

Many people for all kinds of reasons do not or cannot follow that route. Back in the 1960s, 2 of my friends left school after O levels for different reasons, and both, around the age of 20 decided to re-engage with the world and get professional qualifications.One became a Chartered Accountant, the other a Solicitor. They were able to train by joining an appropriate company for a 5 year paid (not much) apprenticeship, during which time they studied in the evenings and took 3 sets of exams. By 25 they were full qualified and both had successful careers. Then if you had A levels the apprenticeship was 4 years, with 2 exams and for graduates 3 years and 2 exams.

Now, they would both first have to go back to college and get A levels, then go to university for 3 years, then do an apprenticeship for three years. That makes it 7 years before they qualify, 3 of them without earning and building a massive debt.

For so many professions there is an element of machismo, for both men and women that they can strut their stuff and say they have a degree, and that the parent body can strut their corporate stuff and say they are a graduate profession.

I think it is time we challenged these organisations and suggested that their attitudes are elitist and discriminatory and that they should offer different ways of training for the profession for those with various levels of education so that those that missed opportunities at school, or went to poor schools, or come from impoverished homes are able to choose between the slow steady longer training for a profession qualification, against the fast track and the (expensive) university degree.

Lets face it, within 5 - 7 years after you graduate, if you apply for another job in most cases the potential employer is looking at your track record at work, not what degree you got and what level of pass you got..