There were kids even in the early ‘sixties who, finding digging trenches on a building site rather than learning something they’d never use (hello, algebra) as well as being paid a wage, was a better deal. We never saw one 14 year-old kid who the headmaster frequently demanded to see but was never there.

One thing became clear when the grammar school option ended and streaming weakened was that we heard more inanities from (usually) Labour politicians. One claimed that the achieving kids in a comprehensive class would encourage the less able to try harder to keep up. Nice try, but reality was any smart kid soon got the sh*t knocked out of him or her so the lower attainers didn’t have to try hard at all.

When I taught at a college before retiring, a lot of kids there attended only because they were given an allowance (which they spent on fast food and video games, not schoolbooks) and had little interest in learning. I had classes where the useless sat around all day talking in groups and I was forbidden to impose discipline in the hope of making them even attempt class work. Best to leave them alone, I found. Everyone was happy, especially the college bigwigs who merely aimed for 100 per-cent attendances, that was all. (we were lectured if attendance levels fell below 97 per cent). Nonetheless I recall one Labour politician saying that ending this money-for-nothing scheme would be a disaster because ‘students need the money to access learning.’ A lot of them didn’t learn, which we tutors all knew but were discouraged from saying. Yet I can remember being astonished that many of them talked glibly about going to university, because they thought it was a long, paid-for holiday thanks to the likes of Blair. They had no idea what was required there, but somehow understood they could get degrees in a range of pointless subjects.

Long established teaching staff couldn’t wait to leave or retire as they had seen the decline very much at the sharp end.

Oddly, 15 and 16-year old ‘difficult’ students were sent from comprehensives to the local college as if that would help them. I had one lad I dreaded seeing in my classes. Whatever ailed him, college wasn’t the answer.

The truth is the arc of education in the UK has been a prolonged disaster, led by theorists and influenced by career pols who have never taught and wouldn’t try. I expect it can only get worse, so I am just glad I am no longer part of it.

With the profit and regulatory conditions over seas, we have been eliminating the opportunities for those who aren’t IQ “smart”, but who are enthusiastic, creative workers. Front Office pukes have no idea of the potential back in the dark areas of the plant. You can’t change human nature, but you sure can “mine” it.

So we continue lying to ourselves. It is easier than anything that we have been making bad life choices for so many years.