[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Livia

Some kids are academic and should have the chance to flourish with those skills. However, more practical, vocational skills are also really valuable. If everyone in this country was an academic we'd be in trouble. And like I've said before, despite my education and the fact that I am academically inclined, my plumber probably earns more than I do. Everyone is valuable and a quality education in both academic and vocational routes should be in place. Sadly it feels like, if academic kids get to go to grammar school, it means other kids get a second class education and that should not be the case.

The problem is for years now a University education has been held up as the Holy Grail, most kids want to go to Uni, 95 per cent of my eldest sons year group went to Uni, and of those that didn't they don't want to study for a "trade", very few want to slog it out on a building site these days, so now after years of pushing kids into Mickey Mouse courses at Uni, they have tried to dissuade kids from going by giving them huge debt, this isn't working so now they have now introduced the C grade in Maths and English, have cut out controlled assessments, so everything hinges on one year end exam, and this year the A to E gradings are changing so kids will be graded from 9 to 1, with tougher exams, basically so only the cream or those who can afford tutoring and extra lessons will be heading to Uni in the future, the whole system is a mess as they continue to chop and change the courses, the exams, what they call the exams, how they grade exams, while parents and kids have to suffer through it all. The rise in adverts for Apprenticeships is no coincidence!