In the United Kingdom, headmasters and teachers should be allowed to exclude pupils who are disruptive.
Pupils should have a choice of schools.
Schools should be made much smaller (no bigger than 200 pupils).
The school day should be shortened.
The school leaving leaving age should be reduced.
A recent study has shown that England's school are among the world's most violent. ( More expulsions of violent children overruled )
England is 36th out of 45 in a league table of school safety.
In the United Kingdom, a headmaster may expell a pupil, but the headmaster's decision can be over-ruled by school governors and appeals panels.
According to the Sunday Telegraph (More expulsions of violent children overruled) , 2 December 2007:
In 1007, a pupil from a UK school took a knife on a school trip. A pupil was stabbed in the chest. The pupil, one of three who had carried knives on the trip, successfully appealed against exclusion and is back at school.
In 2007, at another UK school, governors overturned the decision of a headmaster who had expelled a pupil for setting up a website calling on classmates to kill a teacher.
In 2007, an 11-year-old pupil who repeatedly battered a fellow pupil on the head, punched a member of staff and smashed a door was allowed back to his school by the governing body.
A comment on the Sunday telegraph website reads:
I was once a teacher. - Thank God! no more! Thank You Thank you and thank you to the parents and governors who started a campaign against me and forced me out! I was accused of being too strict and unsympathetic! I refused to teach children who abused me verbally and it was bye bye not to them but me! I was never once offered any support by other teachers or the local authority. There is no hope now. None. If you are training to be a teacher leave now!Why aren't these violent youths and frequently thuggish youths and all and every one of them a bully jailed? This lip service to anti-bullying campaigns is pathetic -it's the bullies and their horrible parents who are protected. None of them deserve a second chance! That's the tosh that creates them in the first place and makes schools hell for all but the small groups of thugs and bullies of both sexes now I have to say. Posted by ep on December 2, 2007
What does Aangirfan think?
It is easy and cheap to educate the bright, well mannered, hard working children, whether they come from the upper, middle or lower class.
It can be more difficult and more expensive to educate the slow learners or the lazy kids, no matter which social class they come from.
It is most difficult and most expensive to educate the disruptive elements, be they upper class or whatever.
So, how should education be organised?
1. Let the grammar schools continue to do what they do well - educating the bright kids. But make sure that the grammar schools take in lots and lots of bright kids from the lower class. The system must be flexible and have no rigid entrance system.
2. Set up schools that give intensive care (very expensive) to the disruptive children.
3. Set up top quality schools that cater for the less academic kids. There are parents and children who want such schools - so long as they are well run, and do not become dumping grounds for the disruptive children.
Government bureaucrats, whether in local or national government, tend to love big one-size-fits-all comprehensive schools. They don't like the idea of having expensive 'special' schools. Schools should be taken out of the hands of government.
The best schools are often tiny private schools, with ancient desks and no fancy facilities. All schools should be tiny. The big schools should be broken up.
Parents and children must have a wide choice of schools where possible. No secondary school needs to have more than 200 children.
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