God bless Terry Leahy. He’s the first British businessman to have the guts to say it as it is: British education sucks. It’s built to fail its students and only gives the country a bleek future. Yet no one understands what the reason for this lack of quality education or high-class students is. Apparently, politicians (and there’s your first problem) who run the education system have forgotten the basic principle of garbage in garbage out and businesses have become so accustomed to incompetence that they simply assume it is the norm. Well, it’s not in many other countries across the world.

Without sounding arrogant, my first job in the UK was in many ways frustrating because of the lack of relevant education my colleagues had in their school and university days. It wasn’t that they were stupid: it was that they just did not know. Why? Because their basic education failed them. I recently ran into a student who’s in a joint program between NYU and one of Massachusetts most prestigious universities. She was on a visit to Oxford and her comments were, to say the least, rather unflattering of the legendary Oxford. Generally, I don’t think Britain has dealt well with the fact that other countries have taken the lead in education and research, and this arrogance may have a lot to do with why the quality of students is constantly poor and the education always out of date.

Without criticizing UK politicians or bureaucracy (because they never solve any problems), I’m going to try and sum up the basic reasons why education in Britain has taken a fall for the worst. Take this from someone who is educated in a third world country on a British education platform, then went on for further studies to the US and now lives and works in the British system. So, I believe I have my bearings right. It’s my blog, so your thoughts are relevant, but not necessarily correct.

1. For God’s sake, value it. British schools and universities have become the accepted second-rate institutions for ‘quality’ education. It is understood by all British students and graduates that their education is of absolutely no use in the practical world. So if you go on the job, you will need to sit for professional education certifications. Why is that? Why isn’t university education fit for professional jobs. And if it’s not, what IS the point of this education. You see this happening in the accounting field, for instance, where students skip university and simply sit for CIMA or ACCA exams to become accountants, and those who did their accounting degrees are not accountants. Who is to blame here, the student or the system?
2. Following on from the lack of value, the curriculum needs some serious updating. If you’ve got a college degree, it should teach you what is right and what you need, not what used to be right when’sun never set on the British empire’. Nowadays, in Winter, the sun is set for most of the time. Things change, but education has not evolved.
3. The methodology simply sucks and does not work. During my O and A Levels, the one thing I was taught was that you must memorise to pass the exam. What the hell for? Things you memorise are easily forgotten. Things you understand are not. Doesn’t anyone get this? Cramming for an exam is useless. Applying what you learnt in real life simulations is effective. That’s why American education is good and effective. That’s why most Indian education is disappointing. That’s why the standard of British education has fallen.
4. Stop promoting cheating and fraud. I haven’t seen promotion of academic fraud become a commercially and legally viable business in any country but the United Kingdom. Look at oragnisations like Academic Knowledge (http://www.academicknowledge.com) and Prospect Solution (http://www.prospectsolution.com), who claim to do business research but IN FACT get students to submit briefs of home work, exam questions and dissertations, which they charge their students for and outsource across the globe to get done. Who would have thought that students could outsource their homework. Well, they do. Universities know it but don’t want to do anything about it because they keep making money, as do these fraudsters. Students become more and more incompetent. Who’s losing out, Britain?
5. Please mind your english. Have you ever looked at an email trail between managers and executives in a British business? I will bet you that 70% of the emails have incorrect grammar, weak or poor sentence structure, or simply a bunch of malarkey put together for no one to understand. In my job, emails and documents were purposefully written incorrectly or in incomprehensibly bad english so no one could understand what was being said. If that is the goal of language, then the medium of education delivery has to be changed.
6. Take the bureaucracy out of it. For God’s sake, I know England loves bureaucracy. But why ruin the education system with it? Make it simple and stop rewarding your teachers on exam score. It’s a ridiculous system, for the incompetent by the stupid!
7. Stop overprotecting and pampering kids. The value of discipline from a professor or teacher is invaluable. It is absolutely priceless. In this country and in other first world nations where teachers have to teach by the law, discipline has gone down the drain. Teachers can’t shout at kids. Professors can’t discipline students. Discipline = education. Maybe that’s the ONLY old value the British education system needs to preserve, but if students can sue schools for being rowdy and getting slapped and walk away with settlements,  we need to revisit the legal system too.
8. Abolish professional education. Yes, do it! Start with the Office of Government and Commerce and let professional fraternities like ACCA, CIMA, ICAEW, CFA, IMA, IFA, etc. etc. be fraternities only. Take away their educational credentials (many of which are simply poor but are marketed better than university education and so carry more value) and you will be forced to offer better education in schools and universities.
9. Don’t feel sorry for students. Give them a challenge. That’s how they get better.
10. Sack Private Tutors. Yes, sack them. Gives these teachers incentive to offer real education at school, not privately at home. It will probably also solve the issue of pedophile teachers to quite an extent.

I’m sure there’s a lot more to be said on this issue. I can think of a list of 10 more reasons why the education sucks and what needs to be done to address the problem. The question, however, is whether someone is actually interested in fixing this issue. Frankly, I don’t know it is in anyone’s interest to fix this problem. ‘Universities’ will have to accept the reality of their low standards, academic fraud promoting companies will go out of business, private tutors (these are prime examples of those who can’t do, teach) will become jobless and all of the UK will have to accept who truly sad this whole state of affairs is. Is Britain bold enough? I don’t think so, even though I hope so.

4 Responses to “Why British Education Sucks”

1. WilburX Says:
   December 14th, 2009 at 10:41 pm

   Ugh.. reading this post is hard, littered with misspellings!
   The future is truly bleek.

2. Morgan Says:
   January 4th, 2010 at 11:13 pm

   I just came across this article while browsing the internet and must say that I agree completely. My host university is in San Francisco and I studied abroad this semester in London. I thought that I was going to learn so much from this school, I WAS WRONG. I felt as if the education I received here was completely equivalent to what I would have learned in high school. Not only that but the graders do not grade students by knowledge, but merely just to give a pass or fail, which might I add does nothing positive for my GPA since A’s are never given. I have found that teachers are not helpful, they have often told me to ask someone else. On one of my papers that I felt I was graded unfairly on I went to the professor to discuss my grade and she basically told me they were not allowed to discuss papers, WHAT IS THAT?! Another teacher told me to structure my essays in the exact format I would have done in maybe 5th grade. Long story short, I completely agree with this article, and I wish I had stayed in the states to received a better education. You don’t realize what you have till you try something new… *Morgan*

3. Ahmed Says:
   January 20th, 2010 at 1:22 pm

   Let me give you an example. A student from a South Asian country is doing PhD here in the UK. The student’s proficiency in English is very low. The student’s advisor asked him/her to hire the service of a professional writer for the thesis. The student now got the PhD.

   How do I know all these? I was asked to revise the thesis for the student. I gave up after looking through 3-4 pages and had to say sorry to the student. It was that bad.

   Education is now a business.

4. James Says:
   August 7th, 2010 at 6:54 pm

   Both the U.S. system and U.K system both have problems and some of them are very similar. That being said, the UK system was a lot harsher than what I have experienced in the U.S. as an overseas student. It seemed like I was typecast and deemed for failure in the schools I went to in England. Students are pigeonholed by their economic standing, which is something that probably happens everywhere, but I do think its worse in the UK. I remember being put into the lowest “set” according to my “intellegence” in middle school and high school. That was an experience let me tell you lol. I did, and still do have some learning difficulties, but I am above average intellegence regardless of this. Its something that UK schools do not seem to recognize in my opinion.

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