Education - Past, present and future

Education should be the pinnacle of our society, schools should look like palaces, they should employ the best teachers from across the world, they should support the best teachers from within the UK, they should house the resources required to teach a pupil but also to let the pupil teach themselves until their heart is content, they should contain up to date technology to make learning easier and more fun, they should stock every pieces of sports equipment imaginable and they should also have every musical instrument known to man. In other words no expense should be spared on education because primary and secondary education are the highest levels of education that many young people will attain and their chances of an excellent education shouldn’t be hindered by a lack of anything.

Every government past and present will tell you that education is the bedrock of our society and many of the cures to the worst diseases the world has ever seen will come from those within our educational establishments.

I wholeheartedly agree with this statement, but in doing so I do not want to marginalise the many thousands of young people who will not get places in the country’s top universities.

Having done a cursory search of jobs, the vast majority of well-paid jobs require the candidate to have a degree in some form. Whilst some of these jobs have a specific use for the candidate’s degree, many have none and simply require the degree as a sign of intellectual ability.

I have no problems with children growing up wanting to be doctors, lawyers, scientists or fulfilling any other dream requiring a degree; I do however have a problem with people discouraging people from careers that do not require degrees simply because those positions are seen as unimportant.

HGV drivers are the back bone of the nation ferrying goods from distribution centres to our shelves, they don’t need a degree, mechanics keep the HGV’s on the road, they don’t need a degree, and the store assistant stacks the shelves making sure that the desired goods are on the shelves, they don’t need a degree.

We need to accept that not everyone wants a degree, or wants a job that requires a degree and that it’s ok for our children to take jobs they have a natural interest in rather even if they do not need a degree to do the job. Whilst we all want the best for our children, we must help and guide them in their education and career choices rather than forcing our own ambitions on them. I want every person to achieve what they want to achieve, no more and no less.

Education shouldn’t stop after we leave full time education; education should be something that we can return to at any time whether we are twenty seven or seventy. Many people discover throughout their career that they would rather be doing something else, but do not have the means to take the life changing step and switch careers, sometimes through lack of education or qualifications.

This results in a demotivated employee who only works at forty or fifty per cent capacity and results in an ineffective work force. If someone wants to change their career in to something they are naturally interested in then we should take every step to help them.

I will look at ways of making higher education available for those who have left full time education and have taken up full time employment. I do not believe such education should be free, but I believe that it should be affordable and should make use of technological developments to drive down costs whilst maintaining the quality and standard of the education offered.

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Email : realchangerealpeople@ymail.com

The Candidate