A little rant about things educational.

Theresa May is struggling with the Brexit talks, foiled by the DUP at the moment when she thought she had cracked it. If I were Theresa May, I would be asking the DUP to give the money back. I wonder if she ever wishes she had stuck to the Remain position that she held during the referendum. 

Not all is doom and gloom though. This report tells how English nine- and ten-year-olds have gone up to eighth place in international reading exams. We used to be in third place apparently and then slipped a long way down the ratings. But now we are on the way back up - hurray! - although still behind places like Finland.

It’s interesting to see the various ways groups of youngsters differ in their reading skills:-

“More than 319,000 students worldwide were tested in 2016 as part of the 2016 assessments. Girls scored higher than boys in 48 of the 50 countries – in the two other countries there was no significant difference between the genders.

Students who attended pre-school and whose parents regularly read with them at an early age had higher reading achievement. The study also recorded a decrease in parents’ positive attitudes to reading in 31 countries, while 17% of parents reported they did not like to read themselves.

The study also found that one in 4 students arrived at school hungry every day, and had an average reading achievement score 32 points lower than students who arrived at school never feeling hungry.”

Some of it is just plain common sense. I could have told them that children whose parents enjoy reading and, perhaps more importantly, whose parents read to them are more likely to be readers themselves. We read to our children and I am aware that all my grandchildren have been read to regularly, practically since birth, although with with differing results. I remember sitting on the floor in a bookshop with the oldest granddaughter when she was about three, surrounded by all the books she had gleefully taken from the shelves to have a look at. She still reads a fair amount now, although computer games take up some of her time. The second one reads books on the bus on her way to school. Their brother has had periods of being a fairly keen reader, although never as keen as his big sisters, but mostly prefers other pursuits. He does, however, enjoy reading stories to his tiny sister. Grandchild number four, three-year-old girl cousin of the ones already mentioned, has her own section of the family bookshelves and has long kept herself busy with her story books. The youngest member of the family, the one whose big brother reads to her, will already at 15 months old go and fetch a story book and nods her head in time to the rhythm of the rhyming stories. On the whole a success, I think!

The high school our teenage grandchildren attend has a policy that all pupils should have a book with them at all times, somethin that they read for pleasure. They are encouraged tonread i  soare miments, this does not, however, prevent the granddaughter who reads on the bus from being teased for the amount of time she spends with her nose in a book. Goodness knows why this should be. I have never really understood why reading is sometimes regarded as odd and boring!

I find it quite horrific that the report says one in four children arrive at school hungry every day. Of course, circumstances vary from one country to another but in the 21st century statistics like that should be disappearing. Of course children will not learn well if they are hungry!

The estimable Paul Mason writes about the social mobility that was evident when we oldies were growing up has largely faded away nowadays. Something has gone wrong with the system. Perhaps priorities need to be re-examined. Maybe if university vice chancellors were not paid such silly salaries, then some of the money could be ploughed back into improving other aspects of our education system. I am pretty sure that the rich will disagree with me - and don’t get me started on how much more they could contribute to our society - but really nobody needs £300,000 or £400,000 or more per year to live on. It’s all out if proportion!