Saturday’s headline on The Times front page – “Every child to read and write.”
15% of children in the UK leave primary school unable to read and write.
Today , June 9th 2014, BBC 4 reports that government will not get anywhere near the promise made in 1999, by the prime minister of the day, that child poverty would be remedied within a generation.
Education for primary age children was made compulsory in 1880 when qualms about compulsion were got round by the assurance that once a generation had been through school they would appreciate their education sufficiently to insist that, in their turn, their children attended school.
What is it about politicians that they promise so much and assure us about so much – weapons of mass destruction and a quick exit from Iraq ? More importantly, how much does this tell us about gullibility, our willingness to be taken in. Perhaps it is down to poor education.