More Education Changes

So more changes to our education system at the age of 60 I can look back to my days at school 1955 to 1965. Yes I was only 15 years and 3 months when I left and I was ready to leave school now they want Young People to stay on till they are 18 an 18 year old is not a child he or she is an adult. Someone who can die for their country, the reason to keep them on is simple it stops the unemployment figures being too high.


Yet again the emphasis is going to be on academic prowess; the ability to pass exams, what this country needs is tradesman not another load of university graduates with useless degrees. Why don’t the Government encourage technical skills which can stand along side academic ability? At present a school is judged on its ability to get kids to pass academic exams why not judge them academic pass, plus those who obtain technical skills such as carpentry also judge them on how many kids they can get into full time employment and for Gods sake to keep youngsters on at school when they hate it that can only be a recipe for trouble.

One thing this new Liberal government (oops sorry coalition) wants is languages to be taught Why?

In my Judo and Sambo Career I have travelled to 30 different countries and I have met people from all over the World and the language they all speak or want to speak is English, if they couldn’t speak English most of the time they would speak German and with a German mother it’s a language I speak. The only people who refuse to speak English are the French, I can greet in many languages that is being polite but then we revert to English. Before the collapse of Communism the main language of Sambo a Russian Sport was Russian so when communism collapsed I thought I would learn Russian which I attempted to do but the next time I went to a World Championships all those Eastern block people who could not understand me the first time we met had learnt English and did not want me talking Russian. Learn another language as a fun thing there is a lot more important things to do at school.



When I was at School their was no choice in where you went if you live Westland’s side of Park Road that’s where you went the other side you went to St Johns, the academic kids went the Grammar School or Sheerness Tech. Westlands had a policy of no exams so I left school with no bits of paper but I left with a good education and was prepared for Adulthood the latter was mainly due to the fact that a lot of the teachers had been in the services some even in the second world war. I went on to become an agricultural apprentice passing several city & Guilds exams then moved on to College and passed my NCA. The point I am making is that you do not have to have a cotchell full of certificates to prove your worth what you need is a good education. Rather then keep the kids at school pay employers to have them as apprentices, no matter what people say the English Tradesman is the best in the World not the cheapest but the best.



Martin Clarke Sittingbourne