By Gavin Mackintosh ASnd Joshua Dare-
Uk State primary schools must step up the quality of their punctuations, our group of researchers have concluded.
In the last year alone, The Eye Of Media.Com has caught eight primary schools across London and Essex condoning poor punctuation of their pupils.
The poor standard teaching has been discovered after looking at the notebooks of a number of children from different schools to during our research assessment of primary schools and their pupils. A number of children have been commended with ticks like ‘good’ in some cases ‘excellent’, when in reality, their written work reveals plenty of punctuation errors that weaken the quality of their sentences. A number of the primary school teachers spoken to by The Eye Of Media.Com explained the poor standard teaching by saying they didn’t want to lower the self-esteem of the children at such a young age. Criticising their written work could damage their confidence and reduce their interest, was the common argument given by various teachers in different schools.
We pointed out that this was a poor standard of teaching, and that it was the duty of teachers to thoroughly teach pupils where to place a comma, a semicolon, and a full stop. It was no surprise that none of the teachers we questioned about this failing agreed to have their names mentioned on this article or be quoted, though we still reserved the right to do so if we wanted. We were directed to respect their wishes and just report on our findings. The schools were also spared the embarrassment of being named and shamed, in order not to tarnish their reputation on the grounds of our assessment. One teacher rudely said we were insensitive, another asking if we have ever taught a class of children or indeed anybody. She went as far as presenting a written complaint to our editorial, foolishly ignoring the fact we have a right to assess and make a positive contribution to the education our youngsters receive.
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The Eye Of Media’s official position to all the schools identified was that at least from the age of 9 years, pupils should be taught punctuation very well and tested on it. Part of good teaching requires the skill and technic to explain a subject well to their pupils. The one compromise made y this publication was that the punctuation error had been spotted in the book of a 7-year-old child, and arrangements had also been made for her friend’s books to be inspected. The arrangement was made by their parents. Even ay 7 years of age teachers have the responsibility to teach their pupils well, and cannot justify commending them for work that is poorly written just because they are young children. That is not good learning and good primary schools, especially private schools, do not train their pupils like that.
The head teachers of all the schools in question were contacted and written to about this failing. All, without exception, have agreed to pay special attention to how teachers in their schools mark their pupils work, and for special attention to be paid on punctuation from at least the age of 9. They were told that we would make further checks and schools that continue to condone poor standards of marking and training will be named and shamed. Every parent wants their child to be given a good education, not a compromised one.
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