Heads warn Gove of dangers in target-driven education system

Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) raised concerns about the future of the education system yesterday, comparing it with the “human tragedy” of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust scandal.

His speech at the NAHT conference came a day after the Education Secretary Michael Gove faced a hostile reception from members who warned that they are under intense stress amid major changes to education and the threat of Ofsted inspections.

Mr Gove was heckled as he told the conference, in Birmingham, that they would “part company” over concerns about Ofsted, and was jeered by delegates when he suggested that no school would be marked down in national curriculum tests because one child was off sick.

At the start of the question and answer session NAHT president Bernadette Hunter pointedly told Mr Gove: “Those of us in education, leaders and learners, have never had it so bad. It is within your power to put this right.”

Mr Gove clashed repeatedly with delegates during the debate.

In a speech to the union’s annual conference yesterday, Mr Hobby urged heads to ditch the new national curriculum beyond the basics and instead teach what they “know to be right” to produce well-rounded young people.

He warned of the dangers of management by data, and told delegates “we need only turn to the more human tragedy of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust, where patient care was sacrificed to meet the targets”.

Mr Hobby added: “The same forces are rising within education. The effects will be more subtle but equally devastating.”

A report following a public inquiry into the failings at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust found that hundreds of patients may have died needlessly after being “routinely neglected” amid a focus on the targets needed to become a foundation trust.

Mr Hobby told heads that schools should be valued for the whole contribution they make, not just to a child’s education and that the national curriculum “does not and cannot define what happens in a school”. He added: “It is the bare minimum. The school curriculum is bigger than the national curriculum; and the value of an education is bigger than any curriculum.”

Ministers have published a new draft national curriculum, and it is expected that a revised version will be released in the summer. It will be introduced for teaching in September 2014.

A Department for Education spokesman said: “The consultation on the draft national curriculum has now closed and we are in the process of analysing and considering responses, to which we will reply shortly.

“We will consider all arguments put forward during the consultation period before we finalise the content and design of the new national curriculum later this year.”

The NAHT conference also heard yesterday that children are losing their innocence at the age of 12 or younger amid increasing exposure to inappropriate and explicit material on TV.

Adult themes such as rape, murder, alcoholism and prostitution were being broadcast before the watershed, while reality TV show Britain’s Got Talent aired a performance of a song featuring explicit lyrics, according to Amanda Hulme, head of Claypool Primary School in Bolton. She said she was concerned that childhood was being cut short, with children forced to grow up too quickly.

School life: Page 11.