.
I was inspired by the teachers at school and college, and because I
really enjoy explaining things I became interested in teaching. So when
the opportunity to teach at the very same college that 20 years previously
I had attained my engineering diploma came up, I went for it. My first
day teaching was filled with nerves, as is traditional, but talking
to recent school leavers about the wonders of engineering was a real
privilege and very rewarding.
But after a few weeks two things began to surprise and shock me. First
of all the academic level of the students coming out of school was quite
simply terrible, although they all brandished clutches of paper qualifications
they understood so little that it knocked my lesson plan back by months,
I had to go over primary school subjects first to get their basic numeracy
and literacy up to a usable level.
The second problem was the attitude of the students, after a life of
being helped through every hurdle, they simply expected me to do all
the work for them.
And this is the fundamental problem with the current system, if a student
fails then its the teachers 'fault' and not the student. Obviously a
teachers ability is reflected in the results of the students, but surely
the achievement of an individual is their own responsibility. The result
of this system is that students are 'helped' to achieve good scores,
and they have no desire or will to do anything for themselves, it breeds
a culture of 'I deserve it', or put a little more strongly - useless
morons that just take from society and have no appreciation for the
value of education or hard work. This was highlighted by one student
who bucked the trend, he worked tirelessly despite holding down an evening
job. He really knew the true value of education, he was older than the
others and was putting himself through the course at his own expense.
The reason for all this was that he was from the Congo, and he too was
shocked at the complacent and disrespectful attitude of our home grown
students.
Successive governments have confused ability with exams, yes its right
and proper to encourage everyone to achieve as much academically as
possible, but to set quotas is to deny that humans have varied abilities.
There is a target of getting half the school leaving population through
university, the inevitable result is that the qualification of 'degree'
now holds less value than it did. When interviewing graduates for jobs
in industry I have been deeply saddened and angered by the poor standards
of knowledge and ability, in real terms a modern engineering degree
holder might know less than someone with a diploma did 30 years ago.
And this just cant be right.
The education system is clogged up with students who have no real interest
in the subject, they have been herded there by the system and bribed
with EMA money, which is a deeply corrupting idea in itself. These uninterested
students require more work from the teacher which robs time and encouragement
from talented students that have potential to make a huge contribution
to industry and society. It is genuinely unfair.
As this has been going on for some time, we are now seeing a generation
of work shy ignorants that are clogging up factories and shops, making
selfish demands and restricting British productivity. No wonder the
Chinese have taken over as the 'worlds workshop'.