Dwell on success, not failure

16th June 1995, 1:00am

Share

Dwell on success, not failure

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/dwell-success-not-failure
I fail to understand why politicians of all persuasions constantly emphasise the number of failing schools in this country.

According to your figures (TES, June 2), 51 schools are failing to provide adequate education out of the 3,000 so far inspected.The failure figure represents 1.7 per cent, so our schools’ success rate must be 98.3 per cent.

Your report stated that there are another 10 schools in the pipeline to be classed as failing schools. This grand total would still only represent a 2 per cent failure rate.

The estimated number of all schools likely to fail is put at between 250 and 500, which again results in a figure of less than 2 per cent even using the highest failure figure.

Should not all of us involved in education celebrate this extremely high success rate given that we have to tolerate underfunding, large class sizes, etc.?

If all areas of commerce and industry worked on a 98 per cent efficiency rate, this country would not be in such economic straits.

SAM HOYLE

Lowton high school Newton Road Lowton, Warrington, Lancashire

Want to keep reading for free?

Register with Tes and you can read two free articles every month plus you'll have access to our range of award-winning newsletters.

Keep reading for just £1 per month

You've reached your limit of free articles this month. Subscribe for £1 per month for three months and get:

  • Unlimited access to all Tes magazine content
  • Exclusive subscriber-only stories
  • Award-winning email newsletters
Recent
Most read
Most shared