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Rather a sad indictment, don't you think?

Yes, a very sad state of affairs. Not only do kids seem to be unhappy at school, many employers & HE/FE establishments complain about having to expend huge resources on bringing them up to speed with reading & writing when they've finished secondary education.

I often think our education system stinks.

Kids are subjected to pressure from day one with sats etc.: of course, these educational standards are more for evaluating teachers than the kids. - Another government enforced mis-measure if ever there was one.

With my kids I always told them just to, 'do their best and that no matter what, nobody would shoot them'. I must have done something right as they both left secondary school with a fist full (9+ each, though some were questionable to my mind) of CSEs.

As a prospective employer, frankly I was disgusted at what I was given to work with. I had several very nasty bust-ups with our HR director over what he was expecting me to turn into engineers. To be fair, it wasn't the kids fault, but nobody was going to give me the time (or extra staff) to bring them up to speed. Of all those I interviewed, I only ever recommended one for an apprenticeship, though I was forced to take on others. I only ever had to sack one and that was because there was absolutely no way he was going to make the grade. It was kinder to let him go.

Many of those youngsters that I helped and formed into decent engineers are still in touch with me: many have thanked me for the time I took building on their meagre education. I must have done something right!

When I look back at my own education, I was probably better off than most. Local grammar school, followed by a very good technical education at the old Technical college and a local college of FE. However, later in life, when I started at the local university I noticed just how standards had dropped. As one of the lecturers confided, it was all about 'bums on seats.'

We are reaping as we sow! But we hadn't ought be throwing youngsters on the scrapheap, we ought be getting it right by putting education (not measures) first and certainly not by taking the 'cheap' option of importing the skills we need.