Education

Today's pensioners graduated through apprenticeships and developed skills appropriate to the manufacturing base of this country. Their concern now is that this skill resource is fast disappearing and with it the nations ability to cope competitively in the worlds markets. We cannot rely on overseas importation of manpower which appears to be taking over all our skills instead of supplementing them. Education should be for life, relevant and useful.

Education is without a doubt one of the foundation stones for the growth and prosperity of a nation. Children from an early age should be subtly streamed according to their abilities. This streaming should not be so acute that any late developers are not given an opportunity to change course if the need arises. We see nothing wrong with old teaching methods being utilised in parallel with new ones. Quite often children may react to alternative teaching methods and we must be diverse in our attitude in giving each child the chance to develop their potential to the full.

We must not forget those adults that have slipped through the education net whilst they were children or indeed those of a lesser ability having arrived from overseas. A high level of education must exist for adults not only through the day but also into the evening or perhaps even aligned with various shift work.

We would like to see the return of Technical Schools for those children with a tendency in this direction. Alternative studies were always incorporated into this type of school and would enable the country to have a steady stream of engineering, trade oriented, computing, scientific and other skills.

Part of the school curriculum must incorporate life skills. These would include understanding household finance, mortgage and insurance fundamentals, ability to manage debt, swimming, first aid, and a guide to relationships and sexual understanding.