Well it’s official. Britain is the worst place to be a child. The USA is second last. This is a UN study, (UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre) on 21 industrialised countries. Of course I have been accused of being rude, outrageous, disloyal to my country etc. etc. for pointing out a self evident verity. I’m not one of those who hide my candle under a bushel, I was right all along and I told you so.
What concerns me more is that France is not so good, it comes sixth last. I have previously spoken of our geographical handicap of being close to a sub rate country. Our residents are going to the UK, finding it a disaster and being too self satisfied. What are the weak points in France? Well let’s examine the three worst rated dimensions: Educational well being 18 th, subjective well being 18th, Behaviours and risk 14th.(each out of 21 countries)
Educational wellbeing. Within this dimension there are three measurements, the overall result being the average of the three: 1) educational achievement in maths, science, reading. France is average. 2) beyond basic skills. The theory is that basic skills at 15 are now insufficient for our complex world. Under this measurement, the study determines the % of 15 to 19 year olds still in full time education. France does very well it is fifth. 3) Transition to employment. Obviously the end result has to be a paid job. Here France is almost last. We have the highest percentage of young people who are neither in education/training nor in a job. We are also worst in terms of the expectations of the children achieving a skilled job. But are we really measuring educational well being, or rather the fact that there are no jobs because everybody is priced out of the labour market due to our absurdly high taxes?
Subjective well being. This is a measure of how kids feel about themselves, their health, and their school life. Of course as we know the French always claim to be as miserable as sin while steadily increasing consumption and having the highest birth rate in Europe. Their kids have learnt to complain a lot. No surprises there.
Behaviour and risk. This covers healthy eating (France is slightly below average!!!), physical activity (bad), overweight (good), smoking (average), drunkenness (France is the best ie little drunkenness, and the Brits? Yes rock, rock bottom), cannabis (bad), sex at fifteen (considered to be bad for you) France bonks less than average, the Brits do nothing else.
So for God’s sake let’s get back to paying people to do their job and not depriving them of the fruit of their labour. Simple ain’t it?
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I'm not surprised at the fact that the British children drink so much - it's always been like that. I remember getting completely ratted from 13 onwards. I wonder why though? I had a perfectly happy upbringing...
But this whole thing confuses me...I mean, what can we deduce from these statistics? Sweden and Denmark are at the top of the list yet they also have high suicide rates later on. Why?
I'm surprised that France came 16th on the list. I mean, we eat well, we know the joie de vivre...and I'm quite happy with the education here - at least up to the lycée...the University seems to be a waste of time. But my children can quote Molière and Verlaine and their general knowledge is good. I'm shocked at the British schools' attitude towards Shakespeare and the classics...I really do believe that they are dumbing down.
What saddened me the most is the fact that the British children had the lowest self-esteem...why is that, I wonder?
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