FT.com / UK / Politics & policy - Tesco chief attacks ‘woeful’ school standards.

Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco, has launched a stinging attack on the British education system.

Sir Terry, who leads the UK’s largest private sector employer, said that, in spite of all the money that had been spent on education, standards were still “woefully low in too many schools”.

Two comments:

1) Pay your taxes terry and they would be better

2) I agree, in part. I am the father of eight and seven year old boys. Maths sent home as part of the national curriculum is absurdly and obscurely worded, and requires implicit knowledge of algebra at their age when no one has spent hour after hour at school getting them to add up, take away and multiply (division should not happen at this age) time and time and time again.

I am not surprised so many children supposedly fail to meet standards. They aren't given the time to learn the basics and not all parents are willing to spend every car journey doing mental arithmetic with their children to make up the deficiency.

Some dumbing down is what we need. Then we might make progress.