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Top Warsaw university recommends remedial classes to new students [20]
I don't know why Delphi keeps on thinking I support PiS. I don't and my post has nothing to do with them whatsoever. You might also note that I don't say anything about Pis or PO at all - I just make mention about Palikot because, in real-life schools, the thicker kids gravitate towards his ideas and latch onto them to inform their disruption tactics. So, Delphi, a bit of a dumbo remark from you there. Again.
First off: the schoolbooks suck - I'm talking from a teacher-using-the-book point of view ... which you can only get if you're a teacher! Anyone who tells you differently is a liar.
Middle school - only introduced because the Germans introduced it. In short it was a fad. The CDU voted in their party conference last year to get rid of it because they regarded it as a failure, so hopefully it will slowly disappear after the next German elections.
Repeating a year at school. If a teacher fails a child, the teacher has to teach that child over the summer so he can sit "re-take exams". Think about that one from a teacher's point of view. Also, schools want to get rid of troublesome children - failures are seldom due to lack of ability. So, what we have here is a systemic failure on the part of the whole education system, not the individual schools themselves.
The points you need to get onto a physics course at Warsaw Technical University are weighted - meaning that you need to get very high marks in your physics exam at matura to get on the physics course! D'oh Delphi - back to the drawing board for you on that one. The problem is that people scoring high levels in physics at matura level are dropping out of physics and related science courses because they have not had enough time to study physics to a high enough level at school. This is mainly because it only really gets going at high school - so the student has only 3 years to acquire a whole array of skills and knowledge. Taught at a gallop, far too many students fail to attain the level needed by universities. Vital time is wasted due to middle schools existing. Vital time is also wasted on additional courses (WOK, WOS etc).
Mixed ability - once again Delphi misses the point. To get into high school (and courses are 'profiled' by subject choice) there is a certain amount of uniformity built in by the mere fact of having to achieve the required number of points at middle school (external exams + teacher-given marks + academic competitions + sporting achievements + voluntary work). This does NOT mean that kids from 10 different schools will have covered the same things in, say, maths. This causes havoc in the classroom - which eventually calms down towards the end of the first year.
3rd year. It's VERY short, finishing effectively in April. Knowledge and skills are nothing without exam practice. Takes a teacher to know that, though! Mock exams at Christmas give some indication of weaknesses but little time to correct them, as new content is still being introduced.
I do agree with Delphi's point on the limited investment in range of choices post-16. Hurrah! Parents - hmm. Try to find teachers anywhere in the world who are entirely happy with parents. They are a problem, but not an unsurmountable one.
High schools and universities have high expectations - I don't recognise Delpi's comments to the opposite as having any real basis in fact. Some high schools accept lower ability kids - but that doesn't mean lower expectations. Middle schools are screwed by the system - and 3 vital years are wasted. Dross in every class, destroying educational opportunity knowing they are untouchable.
Harry - what an amusing ignoramus he is sometimes! He thinks you can study Polish literature without Biblical references. Mind you, dimmer parents say the same thing because they too have no idea.
