scrubbedexpat141

Beakersful

I've got loads of anecdotal stories about edu action issues, but I won't raise them here

Meow

Exactly. We're talking secondary education here; from age 11 years. Never held a pen. What on earth has been happening to these children?

scot47

Some children emerge from 11 years of education unable to read and write. Why ?

Meow

I find that sort of fact truly shocking. Such children have been let down by both their parents and the education system. How on earth can it happen?

Beakersful

A culture of "Education is uncool" from their family, friends, neighbours.

Millhouse

not forgetting the nanny state that will support you regardless.

when the safety net is set high you don't mind falling.

Bahtatboy

Generally not.

[And yes, a text out of context is a pretext, which is what I've created.]

Meow

That's not what I said and you are misconstruing it. Tsk BB, even for effect.

I really don't think single parents are to be blamed here. That's a Daily Fail type claim. We've all come across people who think anything even vaguely academic is pointless, but not caring whether your child can read or write is beyond that. If they don't have even those basic skills they have so little chance in life and will struggle to fill in benefit applications or vote on X-factor, let alone actually do anything. It's all rather depressing.

Meow

But surely even the dumbest can see that basic literacy and numeracy is required?

Bahtatboy

As to the pretext which I created, and which you've commented on: I, too, don't think that individual single parents are to blame. However, I do think that the huge percentage of children who come from single-parent families has a significant impact on the learning opportunities for those children.

shiraz1

Literacy rates don't decrease with either increases in single parenthood or benefit spending

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/000000650.htm

Beakersful

There is the latchkey kids issue to balance those figures out as bad as each other then read from the other end of the scale. Ever since both parents were forced to work to keep a roof over their heads things started going bad. There are now more kids in poverty in working households than non-working.

Bahtatboy

You're jumping to conclusions there.

First, that analysis is nearly 20 years old.

Second, the report makes no mention of increases in single parenthood (and, accordingly, does not make--or attempt to disprove--a causal link).

Third, from 1996 to 2012 there was a 25% increase in lone parents (see ONS).

Fourth, the report emphasises this:

The principal implication for educational policy would seem to be the following. The most effective way of raising average levels of achievement would be to intervene early in children's lives to ensure that those already failing or at risk of doing so are equipped with the literacy (and numeracy) skills necessary for the rest of their education and for life.

All other things being equal, married couples are better equipped to assist their children's literacy and numeracy skills than lone parents are.

Eeyore

Is that an allusion to the Daily Mailesque delusion that everybody on benefits enjoys a luxury life that "hardworking folk" can only dream of?

Just as prisons are not actually holiday camps (to use another old saw beloved of the Mail), a life on benefits isn't anything anybody with even a modicum of ambition would choose.