As someone who has been in education for the majority of her life, I have seen many changes happen during my time in education. And now that I am currently at University and looking at a potential career in teaching, I thought that I would write a post on everything that I can see that is currently wrong with the education system and what changes need to be made.
*N.B. these are my ideas as someone who was just a pupil who had just finished school, therefore being from the perspective of someone at school and not as someone who might have a bit more background knowledge of the actual education system. If you enjoy this post I might write a follow-up from this one, but from the perspective of someone who is heavily involved with the education system, so if you would be interested in reading that or would like to collaborate with me on it then please let me know.
For a start, there is an incredibly noticeable lack in the amount of mental health support that is available for pupils. Throughout my entire time in secondary education, I had absolutely no idea who I was meant to go to if I needed to talk to someone about my mental health. Now, as for someone who suffers from anxiety and depression, this was very worrying. There were plenty of times when my mental health was at its lowest and when I found myself wanting to talk to someone about it, I couldn't. Yes, during lower school we had form tutors and in upper school we had mentors, but I knew that there was no point in me talking to them about it because, based on others past experiences, I didn't think that anything would have been done about it after me speaking to them. And I know that it's not just like this in the school that I went to, but also in the majority of schools up and down the country. Therefore, I think that the Government need to take it upon themselves to do something to sort out this situation and make sure that all schools have a good mental health support system in place for those who need it.
Another thing that I don't agree with are exams. Throughout my time at school it was always put across to me that I needed to at least pass my exams in order to be able to succeed in life. It was also put across to me that the teachers need me to pass so that it reflected better on them, therefore resulting in quite a few of them only trying to get us to pass our exams just so that they could look good and take all of the credit. I didn't like this approach, and I'm sure that I'm not the only one. Throw this in with the fact that I am absolutely no good at exams, it just means that I was always set up to fail. I also don't like the fact that all exams are based on memory and even though everyone is of a different ability, we all have to sit the exact same exam. This is hardly fair is it? It's like expecting a fish, an elephant, and a monkey to all be able to climb a tree. Well, we all know that the monkey is the only one that is going to be able to do this. The elephant won't but at least he is on land; whereas for the fish, he won't be able to climb the tree AND is out of his natural habitat. I just think that exams need to be a bit more flexible in the different abilities that they cater for and need to stop expecting us all to pass an exam using our memory alone. The amount of stress that this puts on pupils is extraordinary and no teenager should have to feel like their entire life is depending on these exams - because this is what we are told (and believe me, your ENTIRE LIFE isn't down to just a few exams alone).
This ties in nicely with my next point... taking your exams at the end of two years. I have experienced both cases of either taking an exam after a year or having to study for two or three years and then take it. It is fair to say that the former was much less stressful than the latter. However, I can see the pros and cons for both. The pros of taking your exams after a year are that the content is still relatively fresh in your head so even if when you get into the exam hall and find that you have forgotten a few things, you should still be able to recall some of it as it is still relatively fresh in your mind. However the cons are that it does at times feel like you are having to learn everything at a fast pace and by the time it comes to taking the exam, some of your writing skills that you might have needed to develop might not be as of the same standard as they might have been if you had taken the exam at a later time. The pros for taking your exams after two or three years are for this reason of your writing skills having developed to a reasonable amount and not having to learn and take in the information at such a fast pace. However the cons of this are that you struggle to remember stuff that you learnt in the first year and find yourself prioritising everything you learnt in the first year instead of the stuff that you learnt in the second year when revising. I also don't like the fact that coursework is now relatively none existent and a lot of subjects rest majorly on exams (sometimes 100%) and NOT coursework. I just think that exams shouldn't have to be an issue and that the amount of exams should go down and the amount of coursework should go up.
A big issue facing education today is money. It is a widely known fact that the money given by the Government to the education system has fallen considerably and this lack of money is causing there to be many problems in education today. There isn't enough money given to schools to provide students with resources in the classrooms that they need, and nor are teachers being paid enough for the amount of work that they put in. In some schools, some teachers are even having to take on extra jobs, such as cleaning, because the school can't afford to pay for a cleaner - with this having a potential impact on children's education. If this carries on then the way things are going, children's education is going to be put at such a great risk to the point where their future is also going to be put at risk. In my opinion, the sooner the Government realises that more money needs to be put into education (as well as other services), the better.
I'm not entirely sure whether this next point is down to the education system, or whether it's just to do with schools in general, but something does need to be done about how pupils should wear their school uniforms. The uniforms are there to make them look smart, which generally speaking it does do. However, what I don't like is the many, many rules that schools put in place about the uniforms. For example, at my old school we always had to have our top buttons done up, our ties had to be a certain length and up to the top button, and skirts had to be down to our knees. More often that not we were judged for how we wore our uniform than for our actual school work. For example, one of the maths teachers that I had in year 7 and year 8 used to stand outside his room at the start of every lesson and comment on our uniform and wouldn't let us in until we had sorted it. He used to lengthen peoples ties, pull their ties up, and even tell the girls that they needed to pull their skirts down a bit so that they reached their knees or would tell them to buy a new skirt altogether. This used to take around five or ten minutes at the start of every lesson, therefore going into valuable time that we could have spent on our school work. There was several times in his lessons where he would pick on me in particular, stop midway through his lesson, come over to me and pull my tie up - because apparently how we look determines how much work and effort we are going to put into our studies. To be honest, I just think that children need to wear something in school that they feel comfortable in, and not something that is uncomfortable or makes them feel like their teachers are constantly going to be keeping an eye on what their uniform looks like and prioritising that over their learning.
So those are five of the things that I feel is wrong with the education system at the moment. If you feel that there is anything that I have missed then please feel free to comment them down below. Or if you want to add anything on to the points I have already made then please feel free to do that also. Or if you are still in education (particularly secondary school) or someone who works in education, then I would love to hear what your opinion is on anything that I have or haven't already mentioned.
Love Beth xx
No comments:
Post a Comment