From the 1940s up to the mid 1980s politicians had no influence over curriculum or teaching methods in schools but made structural changes, such as:
· secondary education for all in grammar, modern or technical schools;
· slowly making secondary school provision comprehensive;
· replacing GSC and HSC in 1951 with GCE at O-level and A-level plus CSE and later replacing GCE and CSE with GCSE;
These comments show that they kept out of schooling.
1944 PM W Churchill: “Can’t schools be more patriotic?” Butler, President of Board of Education “I have no say in what is done in schools”
1950 George Tomlinson, Minister of Education: “Minister knows nowt about curriculum”
1967 Tony Crosland, Sec of State for Education: “I don’t regard either myself or my officials as competent to interfere with the curriculum”
But senior politicians began to express concerns about standards.
1976 PM James Callaghan: “There is a need to achieve higher standards all round due to the complexity of the world we live in”
1985 Sir K Joseph: Sec of State: “The standards generally of our pupils are neither as good as they can be, nor as good as they need to be”
1987 PM Margaret Thatcher: “We want education to be part of the answer to Britain’s problems, not part of the cause”
Then came the Education Reform Act of 1988 – and the floodgates of power over the education of children in England (and Wales) were opened for both Conservative and Labour ministers. Here are some examples:
1988 K Baker Sec of State: Education Reform Act: National Curriculum of 10 subjects; 4 key stages with external testing – very complicated
1990 M Fallon jnr Min: “Missing from British education the discipline of the market, accountability thro competition & choice”
1992 PM J Major: “Coursework in all GCSE exams should be cut to 20 per cent”
1992 Ken Clarke, Sec of State: “Nearly a third of 7-yr-olds cannot even recognise 3 letters of the alphabet” (It was 2% but no apology)
1998 D Blunkett, Sec of State, sets homework at 1 hr/wk for 5-6 yr-olds, ½ hr/day for 10—11 yr-olds, 2 hr/day 15-16 yr olds
1998 Blunkett said in 2010 “We had a crap teaching profession [when I was Sec of State]”
2006 Alan Johnson, Sec of State: “It’s absolutely right – the whole kit and caboodle of Ofsted to tests. Should intensify rather than relax”
Meanwhile the critics were getting strident
2003 (Independent) National Commission on Education: “Command and control dominates educational decision-making and is counter productive”
2004 Chair of QCA: “Department of Education and Skills has disjointed initiatives and lack of vision”
2004 M Bousted, Gen Sec ATL: “New Labour needs to curb control freakery and obsession with making policy without consultation”
2005 Peter Hyman ex-speech writer for Tony Blair: ‘Why can’t politicians acknowledge that the front line might know more?”
2006 Shirley Williams (Sec of State 1976-8): “Testing & targets has hugely negative impact. The fun of learning has been overtaken by exams”
2006 P. Perry chief inspector 1981-8 (before Ofsted): “Ofsted is flawed, overly punitive and dysfunctional. Huge crisis of teacher morale.”
2007 Steve Sinnott, Gen Sec NUT: “Schools now in Alice and Wonderland where what was satisfactory is now unsatisfactory”
2008 Prof R Coffield et al: “Government policy is no longer the solution to the difficulties we face, but our greatest problem”
2009 Prof R Pring: “Education suffers from effects of measurable targets, inflexible assessment, and unexamined assumptions about aims”
2010 Prof R Alexander: “Discussion blocked by derision, truth supplanted by myth and spin. It negates what education should be about”
2012 Prof P Ainley: “What is ignored is the corrosion of education itself, in danger of losing its way forward for new generations”
Elaboration of some of these tweets can be found at tinyurl.com/kfueqsb
LINKS TO OTHER TWEETS
Tweets One: THE EXCELLENCE OF OUR SCHOOLS #content_42240406
Tweets Two: EDUCATION UNOTADICE NOTACUIDE #content_42240457
Tweets Four: EDUCATIONAL IDEOLOGY OF MICHAEL GOVE #content_42240751
Tweets Five: CHALLENGES TO MICHAEL GOVE #content_42241446
Tweets Six: IF … BUT SINCE NOT … TIME TO GO! #content_42241478
This page was posted on 3 August 2013