State vs Private Education

Cliff

I am sure it is a difficult task to compile accurately, but I don't believe our low position is down to other countries fixing their results. The usual suspects are at the top- Finland, South Korea, Canada, New Zealand, Japan.

rustybin

The Finns don't start compulsory education until 9 years old. Perhaps that's the solution for Britain? Or perhaps it's pretty much impossible to compare given the almost infinite variables between countries?

Who knows.

Pisto_Grih

And Finland, South Korea and Japan have exceptional state funded school systems. Finland is consistently ranked the best education system in the world and does not have any private schools. Most South Korean students attend state school - private schools are in addition to state system, and in Japan, private schools are for older kids - not primary level. Canada and New Zealand obviously ruin my argument, so I won't mention them

They also have a personal income tax rate of 51%... It's not something that can be fixed overnight, and too many countries believe that "we couldn't do that here" overrides the statistical evidence. (See also Finland's response to homelessness and how that couldn't possibly work here...)

SteakAndCake

The issue with state schooling is not just a simple funding issue, although that does play a factor.

A large part of the UK's under-performance is due to parental disengagement and disrespect for education and learning.

Too many parents in low social economic groups only see value in vocational skills. Specifically with Maths, anything beyond basic arithmetic such as Trig, Calculus, and other pure Maths concepts are deemed a waste of time.  That attitude infects the child who disengages from learning.

You see this less with children of immigrants.  Immigrant parents tend to place far more importance on education in general, but also a respect of learning and educators.  Whether they understand what their child learns is irrelevant, they simply trust that if they don't know it, it will make their child better than them, and this isn't seen as a threat, but an aspirational goal.

This lack of respect for education and intellectual pursuits also underpins the wider mistrust and dislike of experts among a certain demographic who prefer to place their trust in, "common sense".

Cliff

Many immigrant parents have come from countries where education is valued.  It was probably not available to all, and maybe the parents of those parents were not educated at all.  So the need is evident, as well as the need to get qualifications and a good job.
It is sad that many children and parents in this country just do not value education in the same way. If it is not valued, it is not taken seriously.

SteakAndCake

This raises another good point.  Migrants value education because they see the importance of it first hand. They've seen and experienced making a living without education.   In the UK, nobody remembers a time before mandated schooling, of child labourers, of Dickensian poverty. It's all taken for granted so much that the importance and power of what we have means nothing.  

Same thing with Brexit.  Too many people take our cosy status quo for granted not fully understanding what it takes to run the 5th largest economy as part of a globalised planet.  The assumption that travel, food, medicine will just stay the same because it's always been the same, and we don't have disasters or crisis in Britain.

Pacifico

Who decided that its not taken seriously?. We have people better educated now than we have ever had in our entire history - 50% now go on to university. If that isnt an indication of how seriously the country takes education then what is?

Cliff

I wasn't talking about the country or government, I was talking about some parents and some children. Its too easy for them to drift through school with no interest and possibly causing disruption in classes. They come out with nothing and job prospects are poor.
The 50% going to University is another subject altogether......

Pacifico

But you get that in every system and country. Its up to the individual system to ensure that they dont hurt the prospects of the rest of the class.

rustybin

We have one of the best funded education systems in the world.

The problem is not a lack of funding.