British education - is it really so bad ?

[cegorach]

SOURCE

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Top of the class in England - but Polish boy goes home for better education
By PAUL SIMS

When Aleksander Kucharski arrived in Britain from Poland, he expected he would get a first-class education.

He was accepted at a Roman Catholic state school which boasts one of the best academic records in the country and is recognised by Ofsted as outstanding.

But after two years he is so disillusioned that he has gone home to his old school, saying his British classmates were interested only in shopping and partying.


Disillusioned: 16-year-old Aleksander Kucharski has gone back to Poland for his education after two years in an English school

"I was treading water within the British education system," said 16-year-old Aleksander.

"The boys were childish, they didn't read papers and weren't interested in anything.

"And the girls only talked about shopping and what they were going to do on Friday night.

"In Poland you have to know the names of all countries, even the rivers. But in England hardly anyone could place Kenya or Poland on the map. The teachers didn't test knowledge, only effort."

Aleksander started at St Thomas More High School in North Shields, North Tyneside, after his parents, who are both doctors, came to England.

In June he informed his mother Anja, a psychiatrist, and father Robert, a medical consultant, that he was returning home to continue his schooling.

While they remained here, Aleksander went back to Lodz in Poland, where he has moved in with his grandmother and enrolled at III Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace, a state school.



'Outstanding': St Thomas More High School in North Shields
Although he received glowing praise from his Tyneside teachers, Aleksander claims he was being held back by other pupils, whom he accused of having no interest in learning new things.

He said: "Here in Lodz I go to debates, I talk about films and I try to persuade people not to use plastic bags. During the elections here we posted flyers for my neighbour who was out campaigning.

"But in Newcastle no one cared about globalisation, the greenhouse effect, the EU, war or politics.

"Maybe it's because they get everything on a plate, because there was no communism there and there's no real poverty, they don't need to worry about their future.

"In Poland parents tell their children about financial problems. But in Britain I think they don't have them or they tried to hide them, to buy their children everything."

Aleksander said that before he left Poland he was an average student.

"In Poland, I only ever got average marks in maths, yet in the UK teachers said I was a genius," he claimed yesterday. "After a year I was top of the class in everything, and that includes English."

The excellent facilities at St Thomas More failed to improve educational standards there, he said.

"They would give me a list of terms and definitions. The teacher told us to put them into pairs and colour them the right colour - like at primary school."

Last night, the deputy head of his school in Lodz, Agata Jagielska, said: "We know that Polish pupils are better at acquiring facts and knowledge.

"Perhaps because we are poorer and we don't have such great facilities in Poland, pupils are more motivated to seek out possibilities for themselves."

St Thomas More is one of the best performing schools in the country. A total of 1,700 students aged between 11 and 18 attend the school which was established in 1988 following amalgamation and has won several national awards for excellence.

A spokesman for North Tyneside Council said: "Every child and parent has the right to choose the education they wish.

"We are disappointed that this pupil has decided to move away.

"Only weeks ago St Thomas More was recognised by Ofsted as being an outstanding school with 82 per cent of students achieving five or more A*-C grades. Among those, 16 came out with nine or more A*-A grades."

I have friends who are working in the UK and quite many agree that the education is somehow wrong, but they are all over 20 so not a single one of them can say a word about the pre-uni level education in the UK.



I have spent about a year in the UK too and because of my interests I have read a number of historical books - once or twice I even checked what the British pupils have to know to pass GCSE and I thought it is rather easy... Still I thought it is rather due to my vast knowledge than the general level of the British education - mind that I have checked all the questions, mainly about British history and I had no contact with certain information since my old days in the secondary school (so circa 10 years ago) so I assumed I could not understand/not be able to answer a couple of questions.


Next - I remember some polls about the general knowledge of the citizens of the UK and some of those got rather suprising results - like some 15 % assuming that Churchill never existed...



About the Polish education system I cannot say much right now, though I have heard it is worse than in 'my times' - still our GCSE (matura) remains quite difficult to pass with some 20 % failing last year and the level of general knowledge you HAVE to know is still decent.




So I am asking you guys is that REALLY so bad in the UK ? Or is it an usual Daily Mail nonsense.


Still I have read a text about the teenager in a polish newspaper (not a tabloid) some time ago and it looks very similar so seems rather reliable...



And finally - some of my friends are going to study in the Uk after they finish in Poland, but for now all seem interested in getting 'the paper' rather than to learn anything new (except the language).

[Fragony]

Isn't everything better in Poland??

[cegorach]

FRAGONY - are you from the UK ? Are you going to discuss the topic ?

If not - go to your cave, thank you.

[Fragony]

We don't have caves in the Netherlands, didn't you know??

[Banquo's Ghost]

Gentlemen, we have an interesting topic posted for debate.

Let's concentrate on that rather than pot-shots at each other.

Thank you kindly.

[cegorach]

Gentlemen, we have an interesting topic posted for debate.

Let's concentrate on that rather than pot-shots at each other.

Thank you kindly.

Please delete all the off-topic posts before another troll appears to ask about polar bears, global warming, Bush, Putin or anything else which is not about the British education.

Thanks.

[macsen rufus]

his British classmates were interested only in shopping and partying.

there, I think, is the core of the problem in this case. Britain still has a heavy streak of anti-intellectualism. I'm afraid the know-nothings are in the majority and want to drag everyone down to their level. I've been out of school for more decades than I care to recall now, but seeing my friends' kids is depressing - how little they know, how stunted their thinking and short-sighted their goals.

Although the problems show up in education, I don't think they're purely educational problems. It's all to do with an atomised society, easy affluence, lack of understanding of consequences, lack of compassion, it's all "rights" and no "responsibilities", our kids are getting older but they aren't growing up.

Oh dear, that was bit of a Daily Mail moment, I must sit down a little til I recover

Or put another way:

"Luxury! In my day we had to live in a paper bag in the middle of the motorway, lick road clean for us breakfast, then we'd go to work down the pit and pay for the privilege. But tell that to kids today ...."

[Tribesman]

Or is it an usual Daily Mail nonsense.

Possibly , when there are things like...Maybe it's because they get everything on a plate, because there was no communism there and there's no real poverty, they don't need to worry about their future.
...in it it is a good clue as to the spin .
Newcastle Eh , that was the place that lost almost all of its industry right , the place where due to rampant poverty and people trying to get out of the place to find a future the government would sell a houses to people for 50 pence if they promised that they would actually live in Newcastle and stay there .

[Rodion Romanovich]

I especially agree about the part about testing effort rather than knowledge, which seems common in all of western Europe. If you're really good (because you learnt it earlier, or have talent), but didn't have to work hard to produce the correct answer, you're punished for it. That's not really fair because a lot of people with good brains have other disadvantages, like not that easy finding a mate to reproduce with, or being able to show his/her social skills when applying for a job (being able to show them, and having them, are different things). Why should they be deprived of their one strength and given less help to improve themselves further, than the people at school that won't improve anyway no matter how much help they're given? It's those less successful at school that get all the help that go and take all high-wage jobs and good-looking women for wives anyway. Having decent brains is painful enough as it is, there's no need for school to add insult to injury and reppress intelligent people for their intelligence. At least not, unless you also start punishing and restraining good-looking and charming people at parties, or restraining people who talk loud and have an easy to convincing others that they have social skill (even if they often haven't) at job interviews, but that isn't going to happen.