单项选择题
Eton College, the school that taught David Cameron, the Conservative leader, is renowned for its excellence. Indeed, 175 of its boys gained the top grade in all their A-level exams in 2008. In the rest of the country, only 75 state-school boys from families poor enough to qualify for free school meals achieved the same distinction. On January 19th Mr. Cameron laid out his plans for giving more children in state schools access to the sort of education—and the opportunities it affords for students to attend good universities — provided by his alma mater (母亲).
According to the plan, "the single most important thing for a good education is for every child to have access to a good teacher". Yet in recent years graduates have rarely aspired to such a mean job as teaching. Instead, the country coasts along on the education—itself far from perfect—provided a generation or so ago to its present workforce. Then, teaching was not only a respected profession but also a way in which a clever poor child could leap into the middle class. It was the most popular career choice for an educated woman.
Mr. Cameron is right: the quality of teaching affects student performance more than anything else in school, be it the amount of money spent, class size, the length of the school day or the age at which formal lessons begin. In 2007 an international investigation by an outsider to education—McKinsey, a consultancy that normally advises companies and governments—concluded that differences between countries in the cognitive skills of pupils aged 15 could be explained by differences in the ways in which teachers were recruited, trained and supported. It advised countries to accept only the most academically able as teachers, to train them well and encourage them to share ideas in the classroom. The conclusions were echoed the following year by the European Trade Union Committee for Education, which did its own research and urged that teachers hold a Master’s Degree.
The Tories’ timing is canny. Demand for teacher training has risen as graduates struggle to find other work during the recession. Should the party win the coming election, its policy may work, at least in the short term. Whether it will succeed in improving the cultural image of teaching once the economy has recovered, and students at elite universities are once again enticed by the high pay offered elsewhere, seems less likely.
The Conservatives also want to expand the Teach First scheme. It hand-picks highly-motivated graduates to teach for two years in schools with a significant proportion of poor children. Alter serving their time they will not only have earned their spurs as teachers but will also be halfway through a Master’s Degree.
Such measures may not produce a new Eton but, if they can boost the achievements e f the poor, they will make Britain a fairer society.
A. England is satisfied with its education.
B. England makes not much effort to improve education.
C. England often models other countries on education.
D. The education in England lags behind other countries.