The Reality of Selective Education

Name : Hoh Tjin Li

Class : S4A

School Num. : 08160

Book Call Num. :

Book Title : The Reality of Selective Education

Author : Ray Bryant

Publication Year/ (Edition) : 1999

Sypnosis

In this book, Bryant examines the differing styles of discipline and questions whether teachers fully understand the fears and aspirations of their pupils. Drawing from his own experiences, he discusses the growth of hostility towards testing, the problems of selecting pupils from different backgrounds and perhaps controversially he questions the supposed injustice of some children being chosen as an elite group.

Message to the readers

There is actually pros and cons in the application of selective education. For the pros, Selective education produces better results. Studies have shown that children of equal ability at age 11 go on to have different results at 18, depending on whether they were at a selective school or at a school with children of a mix of abilities. Besides, Selective education recognize that children have different needs.

While for the cons, the plan of selective education is flawed in that not all children who are good at English are good at Mathematics, for example. Streaming allows a child to be in a high-ability class for one subject and a remedial class for another, which is not possible in a fully selective school. Yet the main objection is that the system is shockingly and openly elitist. Education is a right, not a privilege. A good education should be available to all, not just the elitist while the majority are left to rot.

Opinion

Despite, the many arguments that justify a mixed-ability school I still think that the argument that students have a right to learn in a school with students on the same intellectual plane as them overrides anything. When we separate the students according to their ability we aren't discriminatory or denigrating others, by saying that there are an elite few that deserve to have the privilege of a better education. The elite students deserve to be in a school that caters for their abilities, as this would be of immediate benefit to them than repeating information that they've alreadt grasped well. The education system would improve if we had selective schools as the teachers would be able to focus on a group of students of the same ability, then having to cater for student's varying abilities.