Education.. “either bestows a person the freedom of their culture, or deprives them of it”
Friday, April 24th, 2009The title of this blog entry is a loose quote from Malinowski (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malinowski#References), which is also used at the beginning of the Conservative Party document, “Restoring Pride in our Public Services” which sets out their likely manifesto for education appearing in a general election coming to a country near you soon. The quote means that a good education opens doors and provides access to the rich wealth of experiences that our culture has to offer. A bad education does the reverse, it deprives a person of those experiences and limits their future opportunities. This is an extremely important point for British society as 16% of our current adult workforce is illiterate, denying them access to everything written and printed and all that written and printed media have to offer (like a job requiring the ability to read or write).
Part of the measure of a an outstanding school is what happens to it’s students when they leave at the end of Year 11, this also indicates what future opportunities for young people have been secured.
Last year 99.5% of Bacon’s students went on to either continue education, training or to enter employment (4.5%). By way of comparison the figures for the surrounding borough were 87% continuing with their education and training, 9% going into employment and with 4% becoming unemployed.
I am very pleased that Bacon’s college is doing so much to improve the life chances of young people from a very wide range of backgrounds, cultures and abilities. Young people leave Bacon’s College with significantly enhanced life opportunities and have as a consequence the benefit of the rich experiences that their culture has to offer.