It's widely recognised that public education is usually of a higher standard than state education. That's not going to change soon. What you pay for usually is better than what you get for free, and this is no exception. State schools weren't bad for what they were at one time, though, I'll give them that. However, what surprises me is the vastness of the gap between the two.

I started off, like most people, in a state school. It wasn't a bad school; the classes were a bit big, but there was discipline and general good running. I was fortunate enough, and I do consider it to be good for me that I was able to, leave the state education system before it descended into the current "production line" of oversized classes and powerless teachers.

So I went to a public school. In terms of how it was run day to day, it was pretty much perfect. A model, I'd say, of what a school should be like. Small classes, a good sense of discipline, teachers who understood how to teach. We got several hours of sports per week, we played a variety of different sports, incidents were dealt with quickly and properly.

Now, as a result, I didn't have much knowledge of what state schools were becoming like. In some ways, I'm pleased I didn't. State schools now battle termly with oversized classes, routine violence, teachers with little or no power, a general lack of discipline and overall significant problems with themselves. I'm amazed at how quickly things have changed since I went to public school.

So what exactly has triggered this decline into the "production line" we see today?

Whoah, hold on. Could you define what you mean by a public school and a state school?

Here we have Public schools (Taxpayer funded schools) and Private schools (Schools you pay for).

Oh, of course. "Public School" means something different in America, doesn't it?

Well, "Public School" and "Private School" are basically synonymous here (mine was called both). "State School" is a typical school.

That definition just confused the issue.

State school= Public
Private= Private

Though the line is often blurred. The reason state schools are declining is richer schools (I don't know if your from Aus but *cough* Xavier *cough*) can afford to pay good teachers more money, hence the teachers leave the public education system.

I think it might have something to do with the fact that the United States spends $3 billion a week on a *bleep*ing pointless war. Imagine what would happen if just 10% of that money went to education.

I was talking about England. Military engagements might be having some impact on the funds available for education, but nothing much.

Recently the National Union of Teachers staged a major strike affecting one third of all the schools in the country. The reason, from what I've seen, is because their pay rise isn't in line with inflation. If the teachers aren't happy, perhaps it's no wonder that the pupils aren't happy. Maybe if schools weren't the production lines which have schools with thousands of pupils and classes with more pupils than the teacher can manage, these problems wouldn't happen.

quote darklight123444

That definition just confused the issue.

State school= Public
Private= Private

Galactic, teachers here in the US are feeling the same way.

They're not earning NEARLY enough as it is; Inflation isn't helping much either.

Well, from what I've read, in the US, giant schools are the norm. I don't know what class zies are like over there, but expecting one teacher to handle 40 pupils is ridiculous. Even 25 can be difficult.

On average I'd say a medium-sized class is about 28 students in West Virginia, USA. It's not as tough as you'd think, so long as the students are willing to co-operate.

How often are they willing to co-operate?

I still think 28 is too big for a class. If something does go wrong, one teacher can't control it.

My largest class (Band doesn't count) is 30 people. My average class size is about 25 people.

None of my teachers have any issues, simply because I'm in all weighted classes, classes in which people actually care and pay attention.

A lot of kids don't tend to care about many lessons from what I've seen. Personally, I think it's the convoluted nature of the education system that's leaving people confused. They don't have a goal to work to because there's no indication of what they can go on to do.

Back in my senior year of high school I did a term paper on this subject (although it was U.S. focused). I concluded that it wasn't that schools weren't getting enough money (the U.S. pumps a lot of money in the school system far more that most countries) it was how the money was allocated. Far too much money was diverted from education into to pockets of school administrators (who pick up six figure paychecks), pointless construction (aesthetics over utility), and an over emphasis on school sports programs (large sums of money devoted to small groups of students). It also doesn't help that teachers don't have competitive salaries with industry and that class sizes were too large.

I also listed other problems with the public school system but I can't remember them off hand.