On Fri, 30 Jan 2004 15:51:24 -0000, "IMM" wrote:


"Andy Hall" wrote in message
.. .

Also the political correctness of having a target of 50% of the
population "going to a university".

Political correctness has nothing to do with it.

It has everything to do with it.

The country is turning to
a high tech economy. The government has to prepare for this.

But it doesn't serve the needs of the economy or the individuals
concerned to engineer education such that 50% go to a university by
dropping the standards to make that happen.

Devaluing the education system as a whole because of some misplaced
notion that some skills are "higher" than others in terms of their
value to society doesn't achieve anything. It isn't an issue of
higher and lower or one skill being better than another. The
important point is matching the education resources to the abilities
of the individual.

Skills are rewarded according to supply and demand. Individuals can
choose the extent to which financial reward is important to them as
well as many other aspects of a career.

Dropping academic standards removes the incentive for those with
academic skills to strive for achievement. More and more we are in
an international business environment. Fortunately, we still have
high standards in some of the universities and they are able to
compete with the best in the world in terms of academic achievement.
If this deteriorates then we will be in real trouble.




So the other
50%, if it ever gets that high, who do not go to higher education shall be
involved in the basic skills we all know and need. That 50% is a lot of
people.

Yes and they are equally deserving of appropriate education and
training.
..andy

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