Judy1234
Sat 23-Jan-10 21:14:26
Wise words.
Pick solid GCSEs in proper subjects - take a language, take English lit and lang, take maths, geography, history and 2 or 3 proper sciences and get just 8 or 9 in traditional subjects with good grades.
"The headmaster of Harrow has accused many state schools of deceiving children by entering them for “worthless” qualifications. Barnaby Lenon said that grade inflation and a shift to vocational qualifications was masking a failure to teach enough pupils to a good standard.
“Let us not deceive our children, and especially children from poorer homes, with worthless qualifications so that they become like the citizens of Weimar Germany or Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, carrying their certificates around in a wheelbarrow,” he told a conference.
“[Let’s not] produce people like those girls in the first round of The X Factor who tell us they want to be the next Britney Spears but can’t sing a note.”
He cited media studies as an example of a soft subject, for which many schools were keen to enter students because it was easier for them to get a good grade. The real route to a good job in one of the professions, he said, was good grades in traditional academic subjects such as maths, sciences and languages."
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/school_league_tables/article6998943.ece
bulba2000
Thu 24-Jan-13 18:13:35
Oh yes, and I agree BTEC's need to be linked with relevant vocational options and more needs to be done about getting the kids who take them work placements that will take them beyond 18+. I used to work in recruitment and the amount of unemployed youngsters with a wealth of BTECs and NVQ's and other qualifications in subjects noone had heard of, up against those who had graduated with 2:1s in degrees from respectable institutions...they stood no chance.
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