The UK education system is in a mess - you just had to witness recent TV interviews with rioting looters to realise that most could barely string a sentence together. There is a definite breakdown in society here in the UK, with a growing underclass, uneducated, almost feral and totally distant from the rest of society.
The recent rioting in British cities was a wake-up call for the rest of us, but there is no pity for those looters now been handed tough sentences in our courts, but a reminder that we need to take measures to protect what belongs to us. We can't all live in gated communities, but had the riots continued and become more widespread, it was likely that a new breed of vigilante would have emerged and prepared to defend their communities.
It was a sobering time for the government too, who needed the police to take firm action, before ordinary law-abiding citizens did the job for them. The seriousness of the rioting and looting is reflected in the Courts handing out what appear to be harsh jail sentences. However, looters are not just being jailed for robbing a Mars bar, or taking an ice-cream, but the circumstances surrounding their illegal activities.
Homes, shops, cars, jobs and sadly, lives, were lost during those few days of civil disorder and it happened in a country famed for its reserve and good manners. The police have said they will spend the next two-years sifting through CCTV footage in order to identify those who took part in the looting. So, there will be young people in communities who still have the knock on the door to face, their lives ruined by moments of stupidity.
Too many young people are leaving school hardly able to read or write and lacking even the most basic of skills necessary to get through a job interview. Much of the blame has to be laid at the door of successive governments, but the teaching profession itself must take a large proportion of the blame, with too many joining their ranks not because they have a desire, a passion, to educate the young of the country, but to provide themselves with better pensions and benefits.
Over recent years education has become a secondary requirement for many, especially those children of the underclass, brought up on a diet of the Jeremy Kyle show and reality TV that promises fame without effort. It makes you wonder if there are those amongst this tribe who, given the opportunity, have the potential to be the great, the good, the innovators of tomorrow's world? Even educators themselves, given half a chance.
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