'Every little home truth helps'
The government comments that 'secondary school standards have never been higher'.
I don't know about you, but I believe the Tesco boss.
Yet again the government spout out the usual tractor stats nonsense, believing their own hype and spin. Of course, on paper the figures will scream out that improvements in education are real but behind the figures lies the massaging and manipulation of years of lowering targets and associated bullshit.
I see everyday at work the result of the education system.
A lot of youngsters start their working life in supermarkets. I started in a supermarket and twenty four years later I am still there. As a sixteen year old YTS (Youth Training Scheme) employee I received the fantastic sum of £27.30 for a full time week. It was only supposed to be for a few months until I joined the Royal Navy but I was taken on 'full time proper' and stayed and progressed slowly up the ranks. In this day and age it's a pretty safe job, even it's not that glamorous. It pays the bills. The incredible competition between supermarkets means that it is a tough job, it's much harder than it was around ten years ago. I work on nights and my team and I each night have a wrecked shop to put back together for opening the next morning, no excuses and no failure to deliver. It's back breaking work and not for everyone. Anyway, I digress...
Terry Leahy is totally correct. The standard of the younger employee has fallen sharply over the past few years. I must admit that I am not talking about educational standards as you do not need to be brain of Britain to work in a supermarket. What I have noticed is the poor attitude and work ethic of the teen/early twenties worker.
Push them hard and they crumble, then throw a sickie. Set them a work/time target and they fail to reach it. Question their performance and they shrug their shoulders. Tell them that they must finish what they have been left to do or else they weren't going home is met with a 'that's against my human rights' comment, to which I reply 'what about the poor bugger after you that has to finish off your work, what about their rights?' But they don't care.
I think the problem stems from the 'everyone is a winner' ethos that infects the education system today. They have never been taken to task for any failings and it's a shock when they arrive in the real world to find out that life just isn't like what they expected. Add that onto the righteous nonsense pumped into their brains since the age of five and it's a recipe for life failure.
My eight year old brother in law struggles with reading and writing. When I was his age, I was devouring Enid Blyton books by the bucket load. But on his report card it says that he is very good at 'being kind to others'. WTF?
This country is doomed.
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23 comments:
Hmm, crap choice between lying devious politicians and a greedy capitalist bastard who exploits workers and suppliers alike, so neither.
BTW Rab, try to stop touching your forelock and bowing. Resistance to the so called 'work ethic' that is driven by company profit greed is necessary.
You're absolutely right Rab, both in cause and effect.
But look on the bright side. Remember when we were growing up under Thach, seeing men of 50 unemployable?
That was mainly because of talented and hungry younger people coming through, to knock the untrainable, unreformable former miners and ship-builders out of the game.
Do you think we're going to have that problem?
The fucking do-gooding cunts who dismantled the grammar school / secondary modern system but replaced it with "everyone is equal" bollocks should be dug up and given a good kicking.
The Penguin
I think the problem stems from the 'everyone is a winner' ethos that infects the education system today.
That sums it up nicely.
I guess it might be called Subjectivism: the belief that one's own beliefs and views are, somehow, unassailable by right.
To the Subjectivist, there is nothing more loathsome than a clear fact or a cold statistic. Watch your mail from petty bureacrats and jobsworths of all kinds: notice the widespread use of the phrase 'We feel that ...' it doesn't matter what the facts are or what the evidence is, the Subjectivist rewrites it all with what he claims he feels, and who can deny what a person 'feels'?
Those kids who shrug their shoulders at exposure of their attitudes, they will fit right into modern, 'feeling, Subjectivist modes of 'working'. The tragedy is that that is what is becoming 'the real world.'
I'd believe the tescos dude but at the same time how much education do you need to work a till. I picked it up over a cup of coffee. (The coffee took longer to make those shitty petrol station coffee machines are tricky).
I believe the Tescos guy too. I've seen it for myself. Interviewing and employing youngsters is a disheartening business.
They have a "don't care" attitude towards work. Most of them are not enthusiastic and are usually not suited to the job they've applied for.
They are rude, can't take criticism, disrespectful and at least half of them are downright thick (and when I say thick, they have no sense, no suss and show no initiative!)...
My 18 year old brother had to do both GCSE and ALAN in english and maths when he was at secondry school. Even though the ALAN qualifications were superceeded, and made pointless, by the GCSE's. This was so that the schools pass rates for English And Maths were effectively doubled by those who passed both.
Why could they just not do what they were paid to do and teach all the kids to read, write and add up?
All this 'everyone is a winner' bullshit makes me sick! Some people are below average, but are capable of earning a honest living. But, these people now refuse to do low level or basic jobs, because they think they are too good for it. The really sickening part is that they live a better life on benefits, and end up with inflated ego's and no respect for anything or anyone.
captainff said...
"I think the problem stems from the 'everyone is a winner' ethos that infects the education system today."
It turns out 'everyone is a loser'
I suppose we should listen to the Tesco cunt, because eventually they will employ the whole bastard nation.
Blogger Gigits said...
'I suppose we should listen to the Tesco cunt, because eventually they will employ the whole bastard nation.'
:) that's funny, made me smile anyway, and their wine's cheap enough. but tesco, i assume, pay decent rates when they squat a town, unlike all the charity shops i see sprouting up around here who only have to pay 20 per cent of business rates to the council.
A big sign outside a local secondary school (being replaced with an Academy) congratulated the kids on a "100% improvement in the GCSE pass rate"
I suppose that means two students got through this year....
Bollocks, I meant to include the following quote: "The government comments that 'secondary school standards have never been higher'".
I was and my wife still is involved in a private company who struture additional homework for kids who are falling behind and there are fucking plenty of them. The main problem as I see it is that parents don't really know what grouping their kids are in. "Oh he's in the blue/square/middle group means fuck all. Additionally most parents don't want to push their children. We get "he has to work at his own pace". "Yes, but he's not capable of first year maths and he's sitting his standard grades this year, you thick bastards", is my usual riposte!
My local Tesco Metro is usually pretty good, employing intellegent staff that they train well.
The other day I was at the till staffed by an ordinary enough young man, I proferred him a £20 note but waited rather longer than usual for my change.
"What's the problem ? " I enquired.
" It ( the amount of change ) hasn't come up ".
" How much is my stuff ? "
" £14.92 "
" Well you owe me £5 and 8p. "
What surprised me was the incredulous look on his face that seemed to be asking " How did you do that ? WHY did you do that ? Are you some sort of fucking genius computer head "
His jaw dropped even further when his till confirmed that my mental arithmetic was correct.
Never been taught see.
The trouble with the academies that are replacing the schools are that they effectively private companies, and that they will do anything to meet their targets.
My Brother's school turned into an academy and the school was run into the ground for the last two years of it's life. That way when it becomes an academy and goes back up to normal, the academy has made a vast improvement over the previous results.
Then there are the kids who do not fit in witht he company targets, and who may drag down the average pass rates if they are allowed to stay and do exams. These pupils are got rid of at the first oportunity. And, there is nothing that the councils or anyone else can do about it, because the school is in fact a private company.
I'm with Mr Tesco as well. At the risk of youth-bashing, I have to say I've seen the same kind of workshyness going on. I don't believe we should be tugging our forelocks or anything, but it's a matter of personal pride for me that I should do a job properly and to the best of my ability - this for ME, not for them. There's a distinct lack of pride in oneself and one's work these days.
I do volunteer work in FE SfL & the vast number of young adults coming through who can neither read, write or add up (most can't even string two words together in conversation) is frightening. Also, they don't think they should have to do anything they don't want to do & they usually lack concentration skills as well - truly ideal voting fodder for the Labour experiment.
Rab, a good post. Could almost be an everyday conversation!
Oh. It is!
N
N, sadly it is an everyday conversation!
Rab, you've missed one crucial element - the feminisation of society that begins in primary school and gets worse in secondary.
How many of these kids you write of, will have grown up with a father in the house to tell them off and put them on the straight and narrow.
As the product of a single parent female household I think there is nothing worse for setting a lad up in life.
Women's innate tendency to whine, manipulate and to approach every situation from the emotional angle is, I'm sad to say, passed onto the kids.
The science backs this up. On every metric you can think of, health, employment, growing up in a single parent (female) household hugely increases the risks for boys.
It's not new though. 20 years ago I ordered a tumble drier and had to leave a deposit of at least £10. The total was £119.99. So I told the assistant "I'll leave a £19.99 deposit." He got a calculator out to work it out then told me "that will be £100 left to pay!"
The best summary of this country and its failings I have read in 20 years
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