The Times September 9, 2008
British children start education younger and have a longer school day than
most foreign pupils, an international league table published today
indicates.
Yet the United Kingdom comes almost bottom at keeping its teenagers in
education beyond the age of 16, with only Mexico, Turkey and Israel doing
worse.
And comparatively few young British adults have achieved even a basic
secondary education, according to the report by the Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Children who go to nursery 'better at maths'
It found the UK was lagging behind, coming 21st out of 29 countries, when it
analysed the ratio of 25 to 34-year-olds who had five good GCSEs or
equivalent.
This has pushed the UK’s ranking down the table as the population ages: the
oldest measured generation (aged 55 to 64) came 13th of 29. Meanwhile Korea
had gone from 23rd to first place, when its oldest and youngest generations
were compared.
Andreas Schleicher, head of analysis for the OECD education directorate, said
the UK had improved but that “the world has moved much faster”. He added:
“[The number achieving] baseline qualifications is moving in the UK, but
it’s something most other countries have managed.”
The report, Education At A Glance, said: “The UK is now among the
countries with the highest participation rate in education of children aged
3 to 4.”
Labour has presided over a huge increase of children of this age in
“pre-primary programmes”, from just over half in 1998 to nine out of 10
children in 2006. This compares with an OECD average of seven in 10
children. It also spends more than most other countries at this level.
The report found the UK spent above average on education, with private sources
growing faster than public spending.
Some of that extra money was spent on keeping young primary-age children in
school longer than their counterparts. English seven-year-olds endured 100
more hours than average in the classroom each year.
While the average country taught seven to eight-year-olds for 796 hours a
year, in England this was 890 hours.
The report said: “The combination of both higher than average expenditure per student and class sizes, is in part explained by the high annual duration of instruction time.”
It said the UK had among the largest class sizes in primary schools, with only Japan, Korea and Turkey having more children in lessons.
The report added: “In 14 countries there are 20 or fewer students per primary-level class. The OECD average is 21.5. The UK has an average 24.5 students per class.”
However class sizes at secondary level were lower than average.
The report said the pace of expansion in education - particularly at university level - was outstripping past projections and was expected to continue.
It had risen by nearly half in 10 years. While 37 per cent of teenagers in OECD countries went to university in 1995, that has risen to 57 per cent. This equates to eight million more students.
The UK boasts an above-average graduation rate, the report said, but has dropped from fourth to 12th since 1995 and is “likely to be surpassed” by other countries. Its drop-out rate from degree courses is also relatively high.
Mr Schleicher said the UK had recently devoted more of its GDP to education than any other country, and had one of the largest differences in salaries between graduates and non-graduates.
Graduates in the UK saw a 14 per cent return on the “investment” they had made in higher education (worked out by comparing the amount they had spent going to university with their salaries) - the fifth best rate out of 19 countries.
Many other countries were facing “tough decisions on funding and quality standards to ensure their education systems respond adequately to booming demand for degrees.” Funding for higher education was “barely keeping up with increased student numbers,” the report said.
Mr Schleicher said education could lose out to competing demands in ageing societies.
Civitas, the right-wing think-tank, criticised the Government over the OECD’s class size figures.
Anastasia de Waal, head of family and education said: “The government must finally commit to a proper class size reduction programme for infant classes if it wants to see real results. Cutting corners rather than class size is a huge mistake.”
A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: “Over the past 10 years we have seen steadily smaller class sizes and a better adult-pupil ratio thanks to our policies which see 150,000 more adults in classrooms. In 1997 there were 17 pupils per adult at primary level, now there are 12.”
UK Lockdown point of view
21st out of 29th is obviously a disgraceful position to be in and is shameful for a nation that spends as much on education as we do, although from the perspective of the Zionist elite who run our society this is actually a success, it was always the plan to dumb down successive generations over a gradual time period in order to reduce the ability of the general population to think outside of the narrow communist parameters that the school system has indoctrinated into us, that way we are more predictable and as a result more manageable; academics left the curriculum a long time ago the agenda now is plain simple communist programming; it is time we took the responsibility upon ourselves to educate our own children.
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