WDS tries to salvage the British education

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he British education system is failing. Discontent has risen to the point where students are, once again, out on the streets protesting for their right to a free education. But is the debate surrounding tuition fees merely smoke and mirrors, deflecting attention away from a more worrying issue? The educational standards in our state schools are in decline and the attempts of the government to improve the situation seem to have fallen woefully short.

In light of these issues Warwick Debating Society, in collaboration with Teach First, organised a debate with the motion: “This house believes that secondary education should focus on practical skills”. The belief underpinning this motion is that children are leaving secondary schools at the age of 16 and are simply not equipped with the essential practical skills needed to get by in the real world.

During the debate, both the proposition and opposition accounted for the need of practical skills, in life, that the current educational system is not providing.

The proposition’s speakers raised the point that this has to be done through the implementation of a new curriculum, which would include a heavier focus on practical subjects. The opposition however, rejected this claim by pointing out that academic subjects are important as they do provide transferable skills, if taught in the correct way, and it is here, in the focus and style of teaching, that the education system must be improved.

When the discussion was opened to the audience, a comment was made about the diversity of children’s needs stating that any changes in the educational system have to reflect this diversity. This approach would suggest keeping traditional academic subjects and teaching them in a way that would show the children the uses of theoretical knowledge and how it relates, in practice, to the real world. The children also need to have the potential to put what they have learnt into practice through projects or interdisciplinary learning that run in tandem with the traditional subjects content.

This is where we probably need to have a bit of a reality check. Implementing changes of this nature is going to be expensive and in the introduction to this article the issues surrounding tuition fees were raised.

We have a government that is unable, or unwilling, to pay for our university students’ education and is in the process of making budget cuts to our state schools. It therefore appears unrealistic to expect a radical overhaul of the status quo any time soon. This is neither fair nor just, but that is the reality.

We should therefore be thankful for organisations taking it upon themselves to address these issues. Teach First, a charitable organisation, is on a mission to end inequality in education. Teach First is active on campus, recruiting volunteers to teach in the most underprivileged areas of the UK. This is an exceptional opportunity for any student to make a substantial impact on our education system. Don’t waste your chance to make a difference!