10th January 2012 9:00
By Blue Tutors
So, I am currently on my way back from Australia after spending a very enjoyable 2 weeks there. However, this does mean that this blog will be as uninteresting as the last because I really haven’t done very much in the last 7 days. I was hoping to have chunks of free time to sit quietly and get on with some work, but the whole holiday has turned into a slightly manic succession of road trips and activities; nothing that has lent itself to thinking time. Having said all that, I am now sitting in Hong Kong airport waiting for my flight to leave, and I have 6 hours before it does, so fingers crossed that in six hours I will have ticked off a number of things on the to do list.
Last week I mentioned that, in my opinion, certain people in Australia have the right attitude to private tuition, but I also noticed lots of criticism in the media about Australian education. I also spoke to a primary school teacher who wasn’t exactly brimming with excitement about the current state of teaching for youngsters in the country. All that has given me a bit of perspective when I hear the criticisms of education in the UK. I’m not saying that I think we can’t improve, but it seems that many countries have a ‘grass is greener’ view, and maybe we should sometimes reflect on what we get right, rather than criticising every new government that doesn’t dramatically improve numeracy and literacy within a couple of years.