The BBC can be very quick to spin one story into another, if it suits them. But isn’t it curious that they can run an item here on the disturbingly low levels of numeracy amongst those leaving our schools without so much as once asking why we have such poor teaching of the subject? Each year, the BBC leads the hallelujah chorus that GCE’s and A level results have come to constitute, with praise being lavished on the Education system and those within it. This is the same education system that delivers 22% of students obtaining a “decent” GCSE in Maths. On the Today programme this morning, there was an interview with a lady who had failed Maths at school but had subsequently went back to College and gained a Maths qualification. She stated that she felt let down by what went on in the classroom with the teacher allowing her to mark her own questions! She said she cheated. This went without comment. It’s remarkable to observe the BBC protect a dumbed down Education system.
NUMBERS DON’T ADD UP..
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In the beeboid world ‘mafs’ isn’t important, had she cheated in her lesbian awareness or islamic culture diversity lessons then that would have been different.
The BBC have never seen science or engineering as important, just look at what qualifications 99.9% of beeboids have, some arty farty bollocks usually.
About 10 minutes before this article Humpfs was heard to ask, is Maths really that important?
The trouble with people actually being able to do maths is that they might be able to work out how the Labour/BBC are lying to us with their ‘statistics’.
Lets be honest, they didn’t let it go unchallenged, they actually laughed at the fact that she was marking her own work…
Of course Humph played the grump to go alongside Sarahs jolly Montessori mum..and so Humphrys showed exactly the ignorant complicity in “not needing maths…can`t be bovvered” notion that the story was meaning to be scotching.
An unusual three way of guests here, so we`d not get any clarity…only be raised to ire by the fact that a “maths outrech coordinator” is available for rent…and is an alternative comedian( a la Johnny Marbles, I`m guessing-for who`s heard of him?).
And my point?…well, I remember Humphrys being a teacher/TA in a Cardiff classroom by way of a TV series…for a day or so at least.
Therefore, anyone who thinks that teachers are not engaged enough, enthusiatic enough or competent enough need only see the fact that Humphrys could have STAYED in his school even when the film ran out and he had “more well paid” jobs to do( like talking shit i=on Israel)…whereas David Starkey was FIRED from his school by being a wonderful teacher, but who demanded more that fat kid excuses for being an arsehole.
Starkey would be welcomed at Eton with the cameras…
safe to say that not one Today presenter could get anything but a TA post at Glyndower Academy…and THAT in a nutshell tells you all about why kids fail not only to read..but to do their sums as well.
If you want mediocrity, SMILE schemes and rainbow-flavoured condoms on cucumbers, then Humphrys and Montague are available to big up the exam results on demand…if you want proper teaching , go to Starkey and make sure Balls doesn`t get the countrys kids once again by the Milibands!
And finally, why the sneer at always cheating on your SMILE cards, being right all the time and no teacher checking if you know what you`re doing or talking about…all ILEA needed was a Feedback or Points of View and they too could have destroyed the nation just as the BBC have done.
Thacher got rid of ILEA…another reason to be thankful for the great lady in retrospect.
Have I got the Education Post in the new GOATS Mr Vance?
Sorry for the typos above-maybe outretch is better than outreach in hindsight?
Than fat kid excuses, not “that”.
Maybe I should stick to maths…weighing Humphrys salary and pension entitlements by way of centre-bases assessment, for when it returns.
In my second year at Comprehensive School, the Maths teacher (a NUT branch organiser) used to read The Guardian while we were supposed to work through the Maths textbook (marking ourselves). In the entire year I only remember him giving one lesson – on the decimal point!
The English teacher could’t be bothered to mark written work, so instead he spent all his time telling us his view about the world (essentially his leisure activities, his working class background, why it was important to have a Labour government) and the History teacher I recall had posters on the wall showing the glorious achievements of the Soviet Union. For “O” level history we studied (amongst other things) Communist China (minus anything bad).
For Religious Studies there was never any mention of Christianity, only how important it was that people should have the freedom to have abortions, terminate their lives if they were becoming a burden to society, and how wicked it was to put people in prison rather than re-educate them.
The only time I can recall my father crying was when talking about the fact that they had scrapped the Grammer Schools and yet he could not afford to send me to public school (where he was educated) and at the time I was puzzled. I was very lucky with my friends. I now look back (I am in my forties) and understand why he was upset.
The only thing I learnt (with the exception of an outstanding Scottish biology teacher) is that it is important not do anything well because it is unfair on others who are less talented. I had a high IQ score at 11 and on my very first day the Deputy Head (who I had never met before) told me in his office “You think you are so clever!”
I have low expectation from life, and so at the time none of this made me angry, I was more bemused. Now I understand the philosophy behind this “education” I find it very easy indeed to get angry about the Left.
I can spot Leftist assumption to ten decimal points!
I have noticed (what we have all noticed) the BBC gradually being taken over by public school (Grammar School hating) Leftists. It is like a record stuck in the same groove for 70 years, as Britain gently rots.
No one is more Left than the children of priviledge, usually because they are a product of it. Count the public-school leg-ups and Oxbridge glittering prizes that opened the doors of the BBC to this cabal of media Leftists. Not a single prole among them.
Must of us know what we know despite our education, not because of it. If you relied on education, you would believe unequivocally in Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming. Instead of knowing it to be a form of mental illness, along with belief in Socialism.
Listening to the ludicrous Melvyn Bragg series on “class”…what a pile of droppings.
Turns out that Sir Paul Nurse became a scientist, because-being a northern chap-he couldn`t get to the opera or afford a museum…and science meant he could borrow his dads wheel and brace and be clever too…using your hands you see! I exaggerate-but not by much.
Surely then we need to keep the kids of Bogtown Comp out of the museums and libraries…turn their tellies off,…and then we`ll get a load of Paul Nurses to tell us about global warming and use a condom if you MUST have a cigarette…that kind of gobble.
Down with trendy wendy arts…and we`ll get more maths outreach coordinators…we can dream!
In the same vein as not mentioning the I and the M word, when it comes to politics, education, health or anything else there is no mention of the NL words. 2010 year zero or alternatively it was Thatcher’s fault.
And to think the bBC the other year actually promoted the view that text speak helps Children to spell. “U kn WT I M34N M8” and that it is great for children. Until that is they leave school and are asked to fill out a little paperwork.
The bBC the traitors in our midst
It is not just maths. State secondary education is appalling. Unless you are lucky enough to have a rich family you will get a second rate education. There are still a few selective schools but the BBC, the liberal left and Cameron loathe them. There is no rationality behind this. It defies reality.The Chinese probably laugh at us.
It is this stupidity that will finally push this country into third world status. Although the third world is not so stupid as to replace real education by politically correct dogma.
Future historians, charting the decline and fall of Britain, will probably identify the ending of selective education as a key factor in that decline.
So the bBC in a fit of faux concern has knocked out a Maths test in which to allow you to see if you’re thick or what.
Test your maths skills
Just how good is your arithmetic? Try a selection of questions from the Skills for Life survey. Find out the answers at the bottom of the page.
Has anybody had a bash at the questions the bBC has put up, reason I ask is , if those questions are menat to be hard, I really wouldn’t like to see easy questions,, I was able to answer questions like that in primary school.
This Leftwing mentality of dumbing everything down so nobody fails at anything has really ruined the country.
Part of the dumbing-down of maths has been gender-political. Girls have better verbal skills than boys. With mathematical skills, it’s the boys who come out on top. Hence the rote learning emphasis in modern maths teaching. Girls must be made to look cleverer than boys in every subject!