The Dilution of Education

When it comes to escaping poverty there are two requirements, an education and a work ethic. Education gets you better pay, better jobs, and a work ethic means employers want to retain you.

Labour has waged war on both of these, with the end result being a devalued education system and a generation with a disturbing level of layabouts.

Today is A-Level results day, and we see yet another record breaking amount of A grades against a backdrop of teachers warning monkeys could get A-Levels, and universities shifting the goalposts in order to ensure students are prepared for university.

Labour are desperate to get young people to stay in education, so they intend to raise the leaving age to 18 and try to get as many people in university as possible, in order to ensure they're not unemployment statistics.

This is damaging to peoples educations, especially the poorer pupils who previously were able to escape the angry zoo's of school into the more moderate, relaxed environment of college and focus on being educated and getting good grades, as opposed to dodging bullies. Labour have condemned them to suffer further, and so damage their chances of escaping poverty.

Reducing the minimum wage for under 22's - which acts as quite the ceiling to anyone that age trying to get a job - isn't on the table, as Labour would rather fail our children than admit error in their ways.

Universities are going to find their resources stretched, meaning their students are going to suffer, meaning their educations and results will too.

Degrees, becoming more commonplace, shall be devalued - before long Masters will be the 'new' Bachelors.

We seriously need a change, I would propose the following:

An exam to be taken at 14 years of age in English Language, Mathematics and Basic IT Skills - anyone passing this will then be able to leave school if they have found employment or an apprenticeship.

GCSE's to be looked at. Lets make them a proper exam again, that handles the actual subject - most GCSE exams are now exercises in reading comprehension, and not in the actual subject they represent. Providing Physics students with a labelled chart of the EM spectrum is bad enough, but making it multiple choice is just taking the piss.

Same with A levels.

And instead of trying to get everyone highly educated, lets set targets - 50% of the school population to leave with GCSE's, half of those to gain A Levels, and half of those with A Levels to get degrees. And as the %'s increase in line with a smarter population, you make the exams harder in order to keep those %'s roughly in line with each other.

In addition, we look into sponsored vocational qualifications, which would include work experience, and the removal of a minimum wage below 22. You want to work on cars? Fine, school will help, a local garage gets some cheap help for a year, and of the helps good you may end up an apprentice, and later a valued employee - a career ladder married to the qualification.

That way a GCSE is seen as a valid qualification, so is a A Level, and a degree - and if our GCSE's are the equivalent of another nations degree in a century, then so be it. We'll be a nation of brainboxes with our graduates the envy of the world, commanding high salaries and headhunted by companies across the globe.

And best of all, the ones who are better are vocational studies are helped.

Chances of this happening? Fuck all. Save up, place your kids in private education and network like crazy to find them jobs.