"Oz" wrote in message
...
Jim Webster writes
remember that science can be performed to a level matching or exceeding
the
past, but within one nation state you can have a shortage of people
capable
of maintaining it. If the North American continent kept up the standards
of
scientific education, then the UK would still see scientific advances and
its best people would still be able to keep up and would probably move
for
the enhanced education and training.
As it is we are seeing in the UK a decreasing proportion of people with a
decent scientific education

Mind you it is a moot point how many technocrats we actually need.
Very, very, few end up doing research. Most end up in industry (and
there is not much of that left), often as a glorified maintenance man
(nothing wrong with that) and only rarely actually designing something.

Even more go into management or 'financial services'. Pretty lucrative
and often interesting. Some into teaching, even fewer as a vocation.

It's worth remembering that in the 60's only about 2% of the children
leaving school went to university and well under half of those did
sciences. Many of those went into teaching and a tiny number into
academia.

If teaching over there is anything like it is over here your the bright
graduates aren't going into teaching. The pay is poor, the work demanding,
the parental support lousy and the administration support worse. My wife is
working for a third less a year so she doesn't have to teach. She taught at
a school that was pretty good by US standards and the schools here are some
of the best in the country. She would rather work at lower stress job for
less money and enjoy what she does instead of trying to keep order in a room
full of kid and no time to pee.

Forty years ago teaching was one of the better careers a woman could have.
The first pay check my wife drew was the biggest one she ever got when
adjusted for inflation. Women have a lot more choices today than they had
then and we are reaching a lot deeper in the barrel to come up with
teachers.

Gordon