Letters in the Daily Telegraph, 10 February 2006, centred upon falling educational standards and the role of libraries
Library learning
SIR - As a former school librarian now studying the management of school libraries for a
PhD, I read "'Spoon-fed' pupils can't cope at college" (report, February 9) with
interest, but little surprise. Librarians are playing a key role in information literacy
at schools, but they are often among the poorest-paid professionals working in education
(especially considering their qualifications and experience).
School librarians have, for a long time, remarked that their efforts at promoting
independent learning are undermined by results-led education that leads to a worksheet
culture and spoon-feeding students to get them through. School libraries could, and
should, be at the forefront of promoting independent learning and information literacy.
However, while there is no statutory requirement for a school even to have a library, and
while the school librarian profession is so under-resourced, under-valued and underpaid,
the easy option for a cash-strapped school is to sacrifice the school library for more
classrooms, banks of computers and cost-cutting. The inevitable result is that university
students are suddenly adrift in a learning environment that they are not properly equipped
to deal with. As information literacy needs to be started at pre-secondary level, it will,
alas, be many years before there is an improvement in the situation, even if something is
changed to support school libraries.
Richard Turner, Liverpool
SIR
- I am not surprised that universities are enduring declining standards of literacy. In
1995 I began a degree to study technical communication, a vocational course covering
writing technical documentation among other things.
I was amazed to discover that the first year of this three-year course would require us to
spend three hours a week on basic spelling and grammar. The rules governing the use of the
apostrophe seemed to be the cause of the most difficulty. While the Ucas requirement for
this course was not high, shouldn't my fellow students' respective sixth forms and
colleges have dealt with these fundamentals of written English?
Luke Richardson, Yateley, Hants
SIR
- Each August someone like David Miliband tells us that school children and their teachers
are working harder and better than ever before. And each August we are also told that the
percentage of A-level passes, including those in English and mathematics, has improved.
Now, in February, we are told by university administrators that students are so
illiterate, innumerate and incapable of constructing coherent arguments that they need to
spend their first year at university learning the things that they failed to learn at
school.
There is clearly something wrong with my reasoning because, to my feeble mind, the
improving school results are inconsistent with what the universities are telling us.
Richard Tracey, Dinan, France
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