Corruption of the Curriculum – Press Release
James Gubb, 11 June 2007
The school curriculum has been corrupted by political interference, according to a new report from independent think-tank Civitas. The traditional subject areas have been hi-jacked to promote fashionable causes such as gender awareness, the environment and anti-racism, while teachers are expected to help to achieve the government’s social goals instead of imparting a body of academic knowledge to their students.
See full press release.
Embargo: 0.01am, Monday 11 June
Someone had to say it: everything they touch they corrupt, politicians in general and New Labour in particular. Cameroooon is so distant from reality he does not realise that it does not matter if you call a school, grammar, comprehensive or ragged for that matter. If the teaching content is drivel thought up by education fanatics, then it will fail.
Only answer: get rid of all the quangos, especially the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and the Department of Education and ‘Skills’. Give education to those who are responsible for children: parents. A safety net of course but the failure of State Education is so obvious that even the political class must begin to realise. Parents have known for decades that all the trendy garbage does not work.
I have recently finished a ten year period teaching Double Award GCSE Science. The syllabus reduced in content over this period as did discipline in schools generally (including importantly in so-called OFSTED ‘Good’ schools). During this period there was also a push for grade C’s and above to meet the non-value-added dictated requirements of league tables. Together these interelated causes and effects were always going to be untenable. Discipline (which declined in all subjects) became more of a problem in science in State Schools compared with other subjects as it required pupils to do experiments and the subject was not restricted in pupil numbers as in Design and Technology. The lack of political will to discipline pupils led many science teachers to reduce any practical content for many classes anyway. The syllabus has just been changed to accomodate these factors and the majority of pupils not doing separate sciences have and will continue to suffer as a consequence.