Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Terry Leahy

Terry Leahy has 280 000 employees and whatever we might think of Tesco, he certainly isn't daft. He's not alone in his condemnation of State Education either; the CBI found that over half of the employers they surveyed, said that the basic literacy and numeracy of school leavers was unsatisfactory.

Mind you, we know it can't be true; their GCSE results are better than ever...

17 comments:

jerym said...

Who`s got it right then the people running this very succesful country of ours or the boss of some run down deep in debt grocery shop?

Anonymous said...

Jerym I wish I had as little money as Tescos!

Hill said...

Yeah, annual profits £3 billion- sounds pretty run down to me.

Didn't the chairman of Dixons say the same thing about having to teach school leavers the basics about five years ago?

Anonymous said...

Well, and universities are constantly complaining that they have to offer courss for freshers who don't know the basics.
Tough, there you are with multiple A* A levels in Drama, Sex'n shopping, hamster care, dance, photography, egg-boiling, surfing, business studies,burglary and the anal unis expect you to bea ble to read, write and add one-figured numbers up in order to get yu a degree.....e dura la vita!

Anonymous said...

Somebodies lying through their teeth here - either Leahy or the education establishment?

Anonymous said...

Jerym,

Right no doubt you'll be voting Labour then (I suppose you still put your teeth under your pillow for the tooth fairy, along with your Christmas Stocking out for Santa!)

I have no faith in the Tories either, but please wake up and smell the coffee!

In addition to the various comments referred to by previous posters, according to the OEDC PISA study (the Office for Economic Development and Co-operation, Program for International Student Assesment) in the last ten years the UK has fallen from 4th to 14th in Maths, and from 8th to 22nd in Science.

In other words, according to every independent measure outside of our corrupt government our education system is being dumbed down, and failing.

In addition if you can be bothered a quick visit to the website of Edxcel or AQA, and a look at past GCSE papers for recent years will show you how laughable GCSE'S are.

One recent History paper had a drawning of an Elizabethan Theatre; the question? Describe an Elizabethan Theatre! What you mean simply describe the picture that's in front of me? Oh Stretchiiing!!! NOT!

In the days of real exams i.e. O Levels the pupil had to write an essay from pure memory demonstrating his knowlede of the subject. Now the questions are risable, and the pupils spoon feed the answer which is very often contained in the question.

I suspect you definition of "Succesful" is line with the same definition that Ofstead, the Health Care Commission and other public bodies use when they describe schools, hospitals, and Police Forces as 'Excellent.'

Here's a rough guide to public sector speak:

Excellent - somewhere almost nearly, just about, sorta, kinda somewhere near average (we hope)

Good- Well below average.

Satisfactory - Crap!

Poor - Absolutely Sh 1 t.

Compare our education sytem, healthcare and policing to other 1st world European countries and shudder!!!!

jerym said...

Anonymous,wake up at the back there.
"Irony,------mildly sarcastic use of words to imply the opposite of what is said"
Maybe I should have made it a little more obvious for the literal minded pedants out there.

Anonymous said...

Here we go again. So the purpose of Comprehensives is to churn out competent cheap labour for the major bosses to employ.

And whatever happened to market forces? If he can't get the quality at his current pay rates, why doesn't he just increase the pay?

jerym said...

Mr Chalk sir, could you ask all these unimaginative buggers who insist on calling themselves "anonymous"to use just a little inspiration when identifying themselves.
It`s very confusing for an old already slightly confused bugger like me.

Anonymous said...

Jerym,

Perhaps you should take the time and the trouble to explain yourself properly!

Sorry for the lack of imagination with my screen name!!!

jerym said...

Excuse me,which "anonymous"are you?

This seems to be another example of bloggers burka

Anonymous said...

"Here we go again. So the purpose of Comprehensives is to churn out competent cheap labour for the major bosses to employ."

No, you are right, anonymous, it isn't the duty of Comprehensives to turn out people who are cheap labour for the major bosses to employ. But it is the duty of the Comprehensives to turn out people who are literate and numerate.

Brian, follower of Deornoth

jerym said...

It would be even better if the primary schools turned out the literate and numerate

Scott said...

As someone who has experience of the modern education system from the perspective of the pupil (I took my GCSEs in June 2008) I'll say right now that GCSEs are a complete joke. If I were an employer I wouldn't give GCSEs a second glance.

phatboy said...

Just out of interest, but why would a history paper have a question asking for a description of an Elizabethan theatre? What's that got to do with history? Sure, maybe it has something to do with the history of architecture, but shouldn't kids be learning about what happened, when it happened and (most importantly I think) why it happened... not where a load of blokes dressed as women got changed before performing Hamlet.

In any case it's a stupid question, because (now I come to think of it) a lot of plays received their first showings in places like the Middle Temple dining hall, which looks bugger all like the Globe or any other theatre I've ever seen.

Jono said...

@ Anon.

In defence of history, I did my GCSEs in 2002 (WJEC exam board). The history papers consisted of two short explaination questions with multiple points followed by one question directly addressing a source. That source could be a picture, i.e. "What is relevance of this picture [the Reichstag Fire] in the context of Weimar Germany?". Finally, we had a long essay question at the end, possibly with another primary source.

At no point were we asked to describe the details of a picture on the page!

Unknown said...

Tesco's pay and conditions are already good. Where else in the world do you think people who can't read and write properly can make the UK minimum wage? Tesco shouldn't have to pay professional level salaries to get basic-level employees. An economy that pays people more than they are worth is heading for disaster. What Tesco should be entitled to expect is that when it pays First World wages to people who have had 11+ years of education, paid for partly out of the massive taxes Tesco pays, they will be able to operate at a level that reflects the cost of employing them, and the cost to society of their education. The state education system is not currently delivering such people.