Numeracy, literacy and truancy.

On Matthew Wrights programme the other day 
(I like to watch so I can get myself into a foul mood for the day)

He was talking about how percentage passes for exams are getting higher every year, and asked the inevitable question 'Are the youngsters of today a lot brighter than we were at school?'

He doesn't believe it, and neither do I. 

He then read out a question from an official maths exam paper.

'Listen to this question' he said 'and I kid you not, it's here in front of me. Are you ready....Write down twelve thousand four hundred and fifty, in numbers.'

And then he stared at the camera in disbelief. 

Then they went on to discuss the vast array of courses at Universities and Colleges.

Want an exam pass in sports?

Try this for a tough question from the exam, and he read it out:

'Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United, is a famous sporting venue. Name another one.'

This is what kids are passing as exams ffs.

If those two questions represent the level required for an exam pass, I should go to college and get myself a string of A's, and then put them where they deserve to be placed, which is on a facking bonfire.

A lot of absences in primary schools, which I think will be a major part in the figures, are caused by parents who go on holiday during the school term. Given the way that thieving bastards in holiday camps and hotels put up all their prices in the 6 weeks summer holiday, this is hardly surprising.

Cheltenham and the surrounding areas do exactly the same when the Festival is on. If you want to stay, you have to pay.

Senior school absenteeism is a different story. I don't think that many parents take their kids on holiday in term time once they pass the age of 11.

You can only take your child as far as the school gates. Once they're in, you leave, and you hope they stay there all day. If they don't, that's the fault of the school imo, not the parent.

I played truant loads of times in senior school (1960s) but I always went to the correct class and got my 'mark' on the register first, then I'd vanish.

I'd get a bollocking from my form teacher the next day, but at the end of term my attendance record showed no absences, so my parents never found out.

Mind you, I went to a good school where everybody spoke English.

There were no such things as 'Teacher Training Days' like my daughters had in senior school in the 1990s, when their teacher went missing, and they got a teacher who knew next to nothing about the subject they were supposed to be learning. 'Read a book for 45 minutes' was the popular option by stand-in teachers.

school is a waste of time for a lot of kids. instead of punishing them for not wanting to go, give them somewhere more suitable to go. most, if not all, kids who skip days are avoiding going cos theyre getting bullied or they arent learning anything so find it pointless. some cos the level of education is too high for their current abilities and some actually cos its too low.

i used to skip school all the time cos at 13 we were doing stuff id mastered at about 9 years old at my previous school. i wasnt on the streets mucking about, i was at home programming on my computer. i genuinely never learned anything at school from the age of about 12 onwards.

100???? do me a lemon. thats a poor iq for a glass of water.

non tries


that looks like it's french 

The British State Education System Miracle

Record Truancy, Record Numbers of Children who don't speak English as a first language, Record Violence, Record expulsions, Record numbers of experienced teachers leaving the profession in the last 17 years, and it's all produced the miracle of Record A-Level passes year-on -year.

And one of the benefits of this most "progressive" state of affairs is that we have record numbers of young 'Neets', as they have become known.

Can any other well-developed European democracy also match this envious (LOLOL) state of affairs?

Coach, IQ scores aren't increasing any longer. Now they are falling. People are getting dumber.

"In the United Kingdom, a study by Flynn (2009) found that tests carried out in 1980 and again in 2008 show that the IQ score of an average 14-year-old dropped by more than two points over the period. For the upper half of the results the performance was even worse." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect)

We are less intelligent today than people were 150 years ago. British people (and possibly America
and Europe) no longer invent anything, or write musi c, or even have any artistic ability. The less intelligent
are winning the evolutionary race.

folk use their intelligence in different ways today

these days it's for making effective use of the benefits system - 50 years ago it was foir deciphering Shakespeare .

Somewhere along the line it  became apparent to the 'lowest sector' that there was no money to be gained from passing exams unless you were going on to great things  - so hence we have todays benefit culture .

Bet they can all work out fractions when it comes to buying their draw 

iq tests are bollocks. i did one as a teenager and got a stupidly high score, 170 or summat. did that one on the tv the other year and got about 120. all depends on what kind of mood youre in. sometimes it all clicks, othertimes you feel like a total jellybrain and look at simple words and think "is that right? it dunt look right sumhoo"

either way, you can have a high iq and not know sh1t. school teaches you pointless crap you dont need to know. when i was a kid i wanted to be a computer programmer, it was all i ever did in my spare time. i did do it for a job for a while but got burnt out really young. point is, how does learning who all the british monarchs were or the battle of hastings or speaking german hilariously badly help me in that goal?

school is total bollocks anyway  agreed

if i listened to the teachers i wouldn't have ever gambled - as a result i would also be extremely poor and p1ssed off albeit with a decent insight into the life of former  Royals .

my history lessons were spend formulating gambling strategies and not learning about the French revolution - useful or not ?  you decide   

eggsactly. if id listened to my teachers id be in a crap job all my life. instead ive vaguely run my own business for 15 years but made more out the bookies along the way. i always knew i was gonna do things my way, and instead of encouraging me all i got was "you need to stop fantasising and think about a career path"

umm no, no i dont.

Ah! well. At that time they could have no way of knowing that you could join Betfair and carve out a career in moaning!

Thats cos he never done em at scool.