WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO EDUCATION IN THE UK?

Ask a fresher about their course and they will tell you “I don’t need to study much for the first year as it doesn’t count”.

With a loan of over £15,000 GBP, 18-year-old UK students can now enjoy a year-long drug and drink fest as long as they hand in their assignments and achieve a minimum pass mark in exams.

Even if they don’t pass they don’t need to worry as on most courses they can resubmit and retake until they do!

How did this happen to our education system?

Education that was just a few years ago respected and rewarded with higher paid employment is now a complete scam, a Ponzi scheme that benefits the student loan sharks, the specialist student landlords who have taken over university towns and made millions if not billions from low quality, high cost student accommodation and lets not forget the drug dealers who each year have a university load of new clients looking to score!

Obviously, not all students will spend their first year in a drunken state or doped with Xanax but it seems many of them do!

It is unrealistic to expect anything else when previously cosseted 18-year-olds, who are not even allowed to buy a lighter without ID, now have access to a couple of thousand pounds in their bank account, no parental guidance and almost unrestricted access to both legal and illegal highs and alcohol.

Why as parents do we continue to push our kids into further education that is no longer relevant to the job market? We know that the number of jobs available to graduates will continue to be eroded by technology and Artificial Intelligence but more and more students are attending universities each year with little hope of achieving a high paid job and the reality of starting out in their career with a 50K debt.

Alarmingly the number of student Suicides in the UK has doubled in recent years and the number of students suffering from mental health problems is becoming epidemic.

Things have to change and fast, how do we do it? In my humble opinion, there is only one way and that is to completely overall the current education paradigm with an emphasis on creative learning, developing individuality not conformity, divergent thinking as described by Sir Ken Robinson in his outstanding presentation