OPINION: Is your child fit for purpose?

Reports suggest that increasing numbers of pupils arrive at the school gate still wearing nappies, unable to use a knife and fork, incapable of changing themselves into a PE kit, and some, unbelievably, don't actually know what their name is.

How can this be the case in the UK in 2012?

This generation of semi-feral children can't be blamed but the generation of bad parents can. Why haven't they spent the time to teach their children such basic life skills? I wonder how much time these bad parents (yes, that's where they are, there's no getting around it) have spent with their offspring? Did they just ignore them as they grew up? Were the parents just too busy drinking or going out?

Sure, many people work long hours and have difficult lives but that is no excuse for child neglect. Presumably these children were being looked after by someone who might have noticed that the child was socially retarded. Or is this abuse of the youngest members of society a generational thing? In some families is it actually not the parents fault but the grandparents fault?

I think schools should require children to be able to do certain things before they're allowed to start school. I'd suggest being toilet trained is pretty fundamental but I think, before they are accepted into school, all children should be able to eat with a knife, fork and spoon; use a cup to drink (not a baby's bottle with a test); be able to change clothes without being helped; recognise their own name; be able to hold a pen/pencil/crayon appropriately; be able to sit properly on a chair... there's probably more.

Yes, if parents haven't done these things then school need to pick up the pieces but while the teacher, or classroom assistant, is busy changing some 5-year old's nappy, they're not able to give the attention the other 30+ kids in the class need and deserve. Why should one (maybe two or three) semi-feral children harm the education of the other 30+ children in the class?

And how embarrassing is it for the child when, as will surely be the case, that have that epiphany and realise they are socially retarded? And that their patents are bad parents?

It strikes me that we've had decades of social workers, social care, billions spent on people to help, oversee and identify problems in families.... we've got GPs and Health visitors who are meant to do checks on the development of children... we've got communities, neighbours, families, friends, babysitters, nurseries.... Where and why has it gone so wrong?

I agree that it's not just the parents' fault - so many others in our complex social network should be able to identify that there is a problem and for every child arriving at school unable to go to the loo properly there's a whole web of people who have failed but, surely, the bulk of the blame lands at the feet of the parents?

Bad parents are a niggling cancer on our society. Their actions, often their inactions, cast an ever longer shadow on the face of our civilisation. Their abuse of their poor patenting, which is really just a form of child abuse, causes problems for everyone including their own children who they fail to give a fair chance in life.

Something drastic needs to be done to stop bad parents, to bring a halt to generations of bad parenting, do that this cyclone of social destruction is ended.

In the meantime, I'd support any government who introduced minimum requirements to allow a child to start mainstream school and a clamp down on the various institutions that should be spotting these problems and doing something about it.It's time we made sure all children arrived at school fit for purpose.

OPINION: Charity Collections at Schools

I'm sure the following is a scenario familiar to households up and down the country each November:

Yesterday, my daughter, Olivia (aged 5) asked me if she could have some money to take into school next week because they were selling poppies.

Now, it's true, I do have an issue with the British Legion's red poppy appeal but that isn't my major gripe with the situation.

I asked Olivia what she knew about the poppies or what the money donated was used for. I'm sure you know her response. She knew virtually nothing and what she did know was sufficiently vague as to be meaningless.

But, despite that, her teacher was asking her for money to buy a poppy.

Doesn't this amount to theft?

Now I do think there is a particular issue with the British Legion's red poppy; very few charity badges are sold through schools and it is rare for schools to be asking for money for something that isn't part if a bigger charitable fundraising campaign, but surely, if any charity is to be promoted in school it should be fully explained to the pupils what the charity is, why the appeal is happening, what the money is used for and then, rather than a verbal message, a letter should be sent home explaining why the school is involved with that charity?

I find it deeply offensive that my daughter was asked for money for something she doesn't understand and which hasn't been explained to her properly.

Maybe it's best that schools stop charity fundraising? Certainly the sale of poppies and other lapel badges in class, and all the pressure and expectation that carries, should be outlawed - as far as I can see it is not far from mugging a 5-year old!