next »

[traveladvisor]

Yes, that is a very good question! To what end? So.. let me explain;
Here in South Africa it has become very common in the past 10 years, that new applicants for jobs and at Secondary Education Establishments, could barely speak or write English, not do even basic maths, despite having a Senior Certificate with these subjects on it. Why?

Our current Education system has drop the pass level to 30% ...and a part of this % is link to attendance!
So, by just attending school you will pass! Would more years in school really help these students?

[nezahualcoyotl]

Not that different in my country (Third World). Here, elementary school teachers aren't allowed to fail anyone, for any reason. Thus the elementary school certificate only certifies that the kid was enrolled for six years - theoretically elementary school is mandatory, so I'm not sure what the ceriticate certifies other than age (there'e no fast-track option for gifted children, so it really does certify the six years of enorllment). At higher grades it's not quite as bad, but there's still far more pressure to pass everyone than there is to uphold standards.
It wasn't always this way. My grandfather in elementary school learned the rudiments of English and French, had a decent level of math, learned to spell properly, etc (I know this for a fact, I've seen his notebooks) - this was a free, governemt school, not a fancy private school. Now our HSs churn out plenty of functionally illiterate graduates that once upon a time would not have graduated from elementary school. Then public colleges and universities are packed with students and can't turn away anyone if they have space, for political reasons, as everyone with a HS certificate believes s/he's fit for college. So you get college students majoring in a hard science who can't solve F = mg for m, that can't do 2/10 without a calculator, that think distances are measured in seconds, and have no idea how to get the slope of a straight line from its equation.
Oh, and of course, there's talk of making school mandatory until 18, even though according to polls most of our drop outs dropped out becuase they don't want to study. Yes, I'm sure pretending we're going to make them warm seats for a few more years will do wonders for everyone's education.
I'm of the view that it would be better to require not school after 15 of 16, but either some form of training or education (including learning a trade), or getting a job, or doing volunteer work, with mandatory community service (NOT school) for anyone who doesn't comply (barring health reasons, etc). This would keep kids off the streets and would probably be better for everyone, including the kids concerned, than trying to force them to warm seats in schools, and would probably be easier to enforce.