Forget Latin: Labour's education plans
'Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson was last night accused of taking a ‘simplistic’ approach after she said that top exam results alone will not make children ‘happy’.Laying out her vision for schooling in her first address to academy trust leaders since Labour came to power, Mrs Phillipson said that while a string of A* grades may ‘open important doors’, pupils need a ‘wider’ set of goals for a ‘healthy and happy life’.In a clear swipe at the Tories’ former regime, she accused them of having ‘tunnel vision’ when it comes to exam results - and said she wanted to promote ‘collaboration’ rather than ‘competition’.She has called for a review of the school syllabus and the emphasis to be placed by schools on teaching in general.She is to be aided in this by a committee lead by Professor Becky Francis.Prof Francis, who criticised the Tony Blair government for “an obsession with academic achievement”, and the committee leading the review are now considering proposals suggested by teaching unions, school groups, think tanks and Royal Societies.From Andrew Pierce in Mailonline - "Labour appoints academic (Prof Becky Francis) who specialises in equality and gender issues and accused the Tories of being obsessed with improving exam grades in charge of overhauling school curriculum"On her watch, the conventional orthodoxy on education will be turned upside down, with less reliance on rote learning and even less emphasis on exam grades.Don't take my word for it, just note what Francis wrote with co‑author Louise Archer in her 2006 book about schools, Understanding Minority Ethnic Achievement: Race, Gender, Class and 'Success'.In the preface, they say: 'Our intention is to help lever social justice concerns back into mainstream educational debates that have been dominated by the neo‑liberal language of 'quality' – in which concerns with 'equality' have been evacuated and consigned to the margins.'So the new education supremo is more concerned about equality than quality. Improving grades will take second place to tackling so-called injustice.In the book, Francis also despairs over what she regards as the then Labour government's 'obsession with academic achievement'.She wrote: 'This is amply illustrated by the proliferation of testing regimes, academic league tables and the regular high profile publication of achievement statistics, from children's earliest years through to GCSEs.'Indeed, we would assert that achievement is not just an educational issue for the current government it is the educational issue.'
John Hawkes ● 67d2 Comments