Brummie schools failing on the basics
Nearly 60% of Birmingham school leavers are failing to pass their English and Maths GCSEs. Overall 59% of school leavers achieve 5 or more passes at GCSE but approximately the same proportion have inadequate literacy and numeracy when they leave school. In one school, Kings Norton High, only 7% achieve 5 or more passes when English and maths are included. Frankley Community achieved only 13% whilst Hodge Hill managed 17%
A government minister has issued a call for action and a focus on these key areas. Response from Birmingham City Council came from Cabinet Member for Education Les Lawrence who deflected criticism with a claim that some other cities also have poorly performing schools.
“…Les Lawrence… deflected criticism with a claim that some other cities also have poorly performing schools.”
How is that a deflection of criticism? Just because other cities have poor results then it’s ok for ours to be terrible as well?
A common human response to criticism (especially where there is implied accusation), actually a stereotypically childish response, is to try to pass the blame to someone else. When, for example, a child has been found out in some wrong doing, and challenged about it by a parent or other authority figure, they will often try to escape by revealing or inventing a ‘worse’ action of a sibling or friend.
The article doesn’t report Cllr Lawrence’s exact words but reports that he:
That seemed to me to smack of trying to deflect blame/criticism, he’s trying to say that education in Birmingham may be awful but it’s not quite as awful as elsewhere.
I don’t think it’s acceptable to permit poor education performance in one’s own area just because others are worse. Education, even the much derided academic subjects, has been shown repeatedly around the world to being the key to business success. Much of the success currently being enjoyed in the far east owes a lot to the massive investment those countries made in education from primary to tertiary level over the last 20 or so years.