Excluded from the Future, the waste of Potential
Posted by Emily in Opinion under on Sep 07 2007
I’ve just finished my last ever ‘first week’ back at school. As I start my 14th year of schooling, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the education system, its strengths and its weaknesses.
After all the annual fuss about A-levels getting too easy (which I can assure you, they are not), It seems funny to me that such a great amount of time is being spent on the 3% of people who get 3 As at A-level. But what about the million young people who have dropped out of the education system, are jobless and with little prospects for future success?
I think undoubtedly there have been remarkable achievements and great progress has been made in the Education sector during the past 10 years. Standards have gone up, results are improving, there is record investment and decrepit buildings have been transformed into new schools. But there is still work to do, as many young people don’t get the sufficient support they need to fulfil their potential. And this is a waste I am not prepared to accept.
Let me use my area as an example. I live in South Norwood, an area of South London between Croydon and Brixton. One of the most deprived areas of London, it has a high proportion of children living in poverty, with English as a second language the norm in a huge number of homes.
When I left my local primary school, I left with my classmates getting very good SATs results, and looking forward to getting good GCSE results in 5 years time. But something went wrong along the way.
I went off to a girl’s school some distance away, while the others mostly went to the local comprehensive. While this is a fast-improving school under an inspirational Head, last year over 40% of pupils still left without 5 GCSEs. What prospects do these students have? The sixth-form provision in Croydon is shocking, with under-performing colleges or religious schools the only options.
I see them now hanging around the local parks, greens and alleyways. Most are in gangs, many are carrying knives and guns. Once they left after year 11 most have drifted for a year, with no further training or jobs. Once out of the system, it’s much harder to get back into training or education, and as I’ve said the options are severely limited around here. As a result, youth crime is a serious problem around this area, as is the supply and use of illegal drugs.
The school did not do enough to motivate and support those students. In having to deal with such a wide range of problems with children from deprived areas, focus was taken away from pushing those more academic students. The culture of schools like this has to change to recognise that it is so important to support those children who have the talent to succeed. And as more do well, it gives a fantastic example to other students that they can also achieve.
Of course there are success stories, but these are expectations rather than the norm. And most of them have succeeded despite the school, rather than with it. I was lucky in having parental support throughout my exams and school career. But not every child gets that structure at home, and thus the school has to provide it, or we will continue to see this waste of potential.
I don’t have the answers; it’s a complicated issue with differing opinions. Regardless however, something has to be done to help motivate the thousands of young people who need help the most. It is the same in many other deprived areas, including in EWAS. If you want to halt the trends of youth crime, education is absolutely vital. And allowing these children to drift through without fulfilling their own potential is something we should all feel guilty about., because we could really make a difference We have to provide the education and training systems, the out of school support and leisure facilities that can deal with the day to day challenges of life in deprived or marginalised communities. It should be our highest priority to focus resources on providing the context, support and training that will give the future back to these children. They will re-build their community from within in a way that no external agency can. And that is in all our interests.
