OK Stu, thanks for the additional information. So from your post that prompted mine, we now see that the following is complete and utter bullshit:

1: "the rest of us were condemned from that point onwards."

2: "the rest of us never got a chance to prove whether we were or not."

3: "folk are denied a chance to achieve their potential whilst being kids; it's all over for them before they're 11 years old."

You yourself have proved that none of the above is actually true, but there again you have omitted to tell us all that you yourself started the process. You provided the motivation.

"Bullshit Degrees" - Degree courses that offer no real worth either to society in general or to the person who holds them. The advantage that people have who have approached higher education once they have started working tend to do so with them having a much more focused aim than someone who has never worked just leaving school, what they intend to do is normally linked to a specific work or career move.

As to how good our education system is today Shaw? Having experienced much the same as yourself at school, back in those days there were no widespread complaints by universities and prospective employers of children coming out of basic education who cannot read, cannot write, cannot communicate and who are on top of that lot innumerate. One thing that teachers are faced with today, that they weren't faced with when I was at school - they did not have to teach their subjects to children whose second language was English.

The reality is that life is not fair and people are not equal, we are all individuals with varying skills and talents, some more marketable than others - one size does not fit all and it never will.