London: Keen to raise education standards in
Britain, particularly in Science and Mathematics, Premier
David Cameron on Friday cited the example of India to caution
schools not to be complacent and strive for excellence.
In a speech at a school in Norwich, Cameron outlined his
agenda for raising standards in schools at a time when
industry leaders lament that many students in Britain leave
school without basic skills in Maths, Science and English.
Cameron said: "When China is going through an educational
renaissance, when India is churning out science graduates, any
complacency now would be fatal for our prosperity. And we`ve
got to be ambitious, too, if we want to mend our broken
society".
He said his government had a three-point plan to drive
education standards: one, ramping up standards, bringing back
the values of a good education; two, changing the structure of
education, allowing new providers in to start schools
providing more choice, more competition, and giving schools greater independence; and three, confronting `educational
failure` head-on.
This month, the Cameron government`s flagship 24 `free
schools` began functioning across the country, including the
Krishna Avanti Primary School in Leicester.
Life at the Leicester school will include meditation,
yoga and vegetarian meals.
Cameron said: "If they`re making huge strides in science
and math in India, what`s to stop us? We`ve got the resources,
we`ve got the fantastic teachers, we know what works. Now we
just have to have the will and energy to make this happen.
And believe me, we have it."
According to him, the coalition government had a belief
in excellence and an intolerance of failure.
Reminding education leaders and others that Britain was a
"modern, developed country", Cameron said: "If they`re seeing
excellence as standard in cities like Shanghai, why can`t we
see that in cities like London? If they`re soaring up through
the world rankings in Estonia, why can`t we?"
PTI
