Chris McGovern: Time to slay the giants that have held back our pupils

A recent OECD Survey of Adult Skills indicates the shocking failure of British governments to combat Beveridge’s giant evil of “ignorance”. England now languishes towards the bottom of the class amongst industrialised nations in terms of basic literacy and numeracy levels for 16- to 24- year-olds. Our younger generation is actually less competent in the 3Rs than the 55- to 65-year age group. And this older generation is near the top of the international league for its age group.

The Campaign for Real Education has now launched a national report on the five education giants that prevent our youngsters from competing with the world’s best. The report urges that the spirit of Beveridge be revived to combat and overcome these new giants.

The first giant in need of slaying is the current “curriculum straitjacket” in our school. This takes the form of the National Curriculum. It has underpinned our failing education system since its introduction in 1988.

So full has it been of faults and low expectations that it has had to be revised on several occasions.

A new version is around the corner, and we are promised a restoration of subject knowledge and more rigour.

Will it work or will it compound previous failures? Schools will follow it, of course, even most of those non-local authority schools that now have the freedom to set their own curriculum. Once “hooked” it is difficult to break an addiction habit and one that will, also, pass muster with school inspectors.

Diversity and choice within the school curriculum and between curricula is needed. This will ensure that the best emerges.

Second amongst giants to be confronted is “assessment failure”. A hugely over-complicated system of, so-called, SATs tests bedevil our primary schools and carry little credibility. Tests are certainly needed but the current ones are not up to scratch. Most independent schools ignore them.

An even bleaker picture of assessment failure emerges a 16+. The discredited GCSE exam, soon due for another overhaul, exercises a virtual monopoly of the academic examination “market”. A-level has suffered from the same grade inflation as GCSE and has long since lost its “gold standard” status.

This giant will only be slain when we end the GCSE monopoly and restore some rigour to the entire assessment system, including high quality and high status vocational qualifications.

Now, we come to the third giant, the most formidable giant of them all and the greatest barrier to improving our schools – “teacher training”. All new entrants to the profession have to embrace themes like “there is no such thing as ‘failure’. To try is to succeed” and “all of a pupil’s work should be celebrated all of the time”.

If we are to improve standards of education it is imperative that the vice-like grip of the teacher training giant is broken.

The “inspection enforcers” constitute a fourth giant. Inspectors have overseen the collapse of educational standards reported by the OECD.

All schools need to be subjected to an inspection process. Problems arise when the blueprint for inspection is simply a means of enforcing the pre-determined vision of failed “best practice”.

Finally, we come to the fifth giant – the “stranglehold of resources”. For over-worked teachers, short of time, it is the availability of teaching resources that determine, to a considerable extent, how children are taught and what they taught. Who controls the resources controls the teaching.

It comes as no surprise to find that the modern generation of textbooks and software is “knowledge lite” and undemanding compared to textbooks that once served 
our high-performing older generation.

The stranglehold of this giant needs to be loosened and a balance sought between the best of the traditional textbook and the best of modern technology.

*Chris McGovern is chairman of the Campaign for Real Education.