What is best Private Education or State Education

[Nick Burrows]

Error! Assumes facts not in evidence.

(Most private schools will have some form of selection policy, and having high academic potential will tend to feature rather heavily in such a policy.)

I believe that having more money to spend allows you to pick the cream of available teachers, better class sizes, better facilities and an atmosphere more conducive to learning. This is mirrored by generally better exam results (Is this the part that needs evidence Jack?)

Regarding the selection policy, I had always assumed that selection was divided;- partly by ability and partly by having enough money to buy your way in!

I went to a crap comprehensive and my brother went to a private school. I was at least as intelligent as him. I got a thoroughly crap education, and my brother got a good education with salaries to match!

Of course there are some state schools that can beat some private schools, but generally they are just not. How can all of the many advantages of private schools not make a difference?

[Nick Burrows]

The Independent Schools Council (ISC) says 32% of students from fee-paying schools achieved at least one A* grade, compared with an average of 8% across all schools.

http://news.sky.com/story/1135340/gcse- ... eets-ahead

[IM Jack Rudd]

This is mirrored by generally better exam results (Is this the part that needs evidence Jack?)

It probably does, yes: you need to adjust exam results for intake for them to mean anything, because private schools tend to select for the bright and the rich, both of which are very good predictors of academic success no matter where you go.

[Kevin Thurlow]

""What is best Private Education or State Education."

Neither, send your kids to China, South Korea or Singapore."

Or Scotland...

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Kevin.

Correct, recent results show Scottish kids are doing better than the English.
After Independance they won't prop up the British figures so the English kids
will drop even further down the international scale.

Couple this with the fact they are making exams easier to pass so schools can
look good in the national leagues and the future is not looking bright.
Infact it's looking rather dim.

The blame must lay with inept teaching.
The teachers only concentrate on getting the kids to pass exams so
the full subject matter is not covered and any individual who shows a clear interest
or is brighter than the rest of his/her class is shackled and discouraged.
The most important thing is getting the most students to pass theses dumbed down exams.
The fact they are churning out dullards is not their concern.

And yet even though these exams have been modified to make passing easier,
cheating using electronic devices is on the increase.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/educa ... 13488.html

For those interested free advice on how to cheat is available.

http://www.wikihow.com/Cheat-on-a-Test- ... lectronics

List a dozen ways you can cheat during an exam adding:

"Cheating on a test is never a good idea. You cheat both yourself and your future.
However, if you must, at least try to do it right."

E-Bay openly advertises gadgets to help you pass exams.
It is under the imaginatively titled 'Cheat Exam' section.

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/cheat-exam

Next time we have these tests v the rest of the world tool up the kids with these gadgets.
Either that or ask the organisers if they can make the tests easier so the Birish kids stand a chance.

[Kevin Thurlow]

Hi Geoff

No, it's not the teachers' fault. Their performance is measured on exam results, so whilst I agree the teaching is freqently wrong, they have to do it this way or they get sacked for poor exam results!

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Kevin,

They should blow the whistle and expose what is going on instead
of patting themselves on the back and pocketing their share of £30bn.
They are flooding the workplace with young people who know nothing yet expect everything.

In my last job the best three new recruts came from prison.
At least they did not burst into tears if you told them they were doing something wrong.
CV's marked graduate went straight into the bin. We wanted people not robotic dim-wits.

Maybe that is the solution. Send all the kids to prison.
I'm figuring that the prison education scheme is not prvvy to this £30bn so the teachers
have to teach, are very good at at it and actually take a pride in what they do.

[Arshad Ali]

Send all the kids to prison.

Here in the US, the inner-city schools are glorified holding pens, from where the "students" go to 1) full-fledged prison, 2) the army, or 3) join the McJob precariat or make some sort of living in the, er, "informal economy." Maybe British inner-city comprehensives are (not yet) as bad.

Private schooling does make a difference -- provided the potential is there in the first place. I wish I'd had some good schooling.