The proposal to bring ‘ vocational style ‘ courses into Years 10and 11 at Wyndham is a bold attempt to enrich the programme on offer to our teenagers. There is little doubt that neither the adaptation of traditional academic subjects to the needs of less able students nor the intellectualising of practical subjects for the more able, has been to the advantage of either group or to the economy of the country.

This problem is nationwide, has been recognised for years and yet has defied many attempts to solve it by politicians, educationalists and industrialists. The latest proposals for prestigious, parallel systems of academic and vocational streams, well established in many European countries for years, and under development by a group led by Mike Thomlinson, former Chief Inspector of Schools, have been set back by a surprising last-minute response from the CBI which stuck to its usual backing of ‘A’ levels as the Gold Standard. How mystifying that the chiefs of Industry and Commerce should pass up the opportunity to help develop courses intended to strengthen the education of their future employees! Apart from the fact that vocational courses bring enjoyment and satisfaction at whatever level, they make students more attractive to employers and the styles of learning they use have great educational value. They develop independence of thought, acquire hard decision-making skills and develop powers of practical evaluation rather than the formulation of opinion. They complement very well the acquisition of knowledge and communication skills yet there seems little prospect, after the spending of billions on other educational projects in recent years, that money will be found to remedy our relative backwardness in Vocational Education.

Although some advances in our education system have brought increased prosperity to much of the nation, this has produced new and unexpected social phenomena which are causing concern across the nation. One of these is the rise in disposable income in hardworking, and often well qualified younger people which is quickly deployed at weekends with expensive antisocial consequences, and another is the unexpected misery brought to millions when today’s ease of borrowing outstrips the ability to repay.

Legislation is attempting to remedy these problems but although politicians are perhaps best placed to tackle the root causes, re-examination of oeur values can take place in any part of the community and particularly in schools. Even further modification of the curriculum may be necessary.