According to The Times, for the first time the top places in the ranking were taken not by private – fee-paying – schools, but by free state educational institutions. Is it really in vain that parents pay considerable money, sending their offspring to private schools?
As it turns out, everything is not so simple. The council of independent (i.e., private) schools, as the newspaper writes, accused the government of changing the school ranking scoring system in such a way as to render the whole system completely useless. According to council experts, the government included in the ranking all possible qualifications a child receives at school.
And as a result, it turned out that the ability to decorate a festive cake gave more points than the highest mark in physics. In response, the state department for education and vocational training accused the council of independent schools of 'old-fashioned educational snobbery' and pointed out that the world is changing, and the aforementioned council has fallen behind new trends.
This dispute touches on the most serious question about the system of British school education. Why do good old academic subjects disappear in many schools, and instead more and more lessons appear on career guidance, cooking, cutting patterns out of cardboard, and other activities that many would not call serious? Are simple working skills really more important in the 21st century than the basics of physics, history, or French? Or is the main reason simply a chronic shortage of qualified teachers?
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