The problem with serious deficiencies in an education system persisting over a number of years is that today's students are tomorrow's teachers. Earlier products of our over-centralised education system, controlled by bureaucrats and politicians instead of teachers and parents, are now becoming teachers. The Times reports that trainee teachers are increasingly failing basic literacy tests:
"Thousands of trainee teachers are struggling to pass literacy tests that require them to spell words such as anxiety, relieved and mathematical.
More than 11,000 trainee teachers, just over a quarter of the annual intake, failed to pass the literacy test last year at their first attempt, an increase of 16 per cent since 2001.
The findings have prompted concern that new teachers may be struggling with the basic skills they will be charged with passing on to pupils."
The question is, how many teachers have slipped through the net and are now passing on innacurate spellings, dubious mathematical techniques and other mistakes to a new generation?