Good evening meeting on Tuesday 19th March in Parliament Portculus house .. very strong time of sharing experiences of the educational system over the years and how to rebuild after 14 years of austerity...
My daughter Debbie wanted to come but time not possible so took her points and also of my granddaughter Olivia .. the points put forward were well received Debbie is a catering manager and noticed new employees are not equipped with life skills to cope in the work environment. There is lack of problem solving and with this lack of adaptability.. Olivia is a teacher assistant with special needs children while she studies her degree. She wanted to put to the meeting that she is seeing more and more that teachers and assistants are dipping into their own money to purchase necessary educational materials and tools. We had both come to the conclusion that failure to provide a good budget for tools is absolutely counterproductive to enhance learning and understanding. Budgets must account for educational tools to ensure pupils and students develop in knowledge, skills and understanding to be a success in the wider community and workforce! So cutting back on budgets is really not acceptable and poor management of governments!
Also put forward my observations of education in Oostende and the history project Leen told me about Videocall learn & share..The Great flood of Oostende 1953.. The teacher had orchestrated the children to design flyers and posters to circulate in the local community. They were to invite locals to school that had lived through the flood to interview. They designed interview questions and documentary filmed. The seminar panel loved this working example of progressive teaching and involving the community.. I pointed out this was a Syrian girl that had participated in Dutch the local used language and had explained it to me in English. My Syrian Professor of Linguistics.. Like many of our refugee children they are becoming polyglots as they interact with all the languages they have been exposed to. Learning as we learn our mother tongue from sounds, sentences construction and context.
A further point I put forward was that we need to fast track students to university that show a skill in Science, Maths, Engineering with Ecosystem understanding. We need them to pilot ideas for infrastructures that can withstand the severe climate changes to come from the Climate crisis. The fast track should not be impeded by lack of fees rather supported with funding as we need their minds to save our planet home!
The final point made was about the structural problem of schools now they are in a state of disrepair, crumbling and in some cases need rebuilding. As I write this post I think of my younger daughter being health and safety officer for the English Heritage that have ancient building and ruins on sites to manage. Those ruins took centuries to decay we have modern buildings that have taken just decades to decay. So we really need to look at the chain of events from architects, town planners, surveyors, building materials used and produced and building companies plus governments at the time to be brought to account. Money has been wasted on school buildings that should have stood more time than just a few decades and have become a danger zone! Danger to children and to staff! So this is a major issue to tackle.
