Primary Education Report

Today BBC Education tells of a Cambridge-based report concerning the health of primary education in this country.

It doesn't seem long since I last blogged about this ...

'A narrowing of the curriculum has led to a decrease in the quality of English primary schooling, says a report.
"High stakes" testing of pupils has led to a system "focused on literacy and numeracy at the expense of the broader curriculum", it suggests.

The Cambridge-based Primary Review's report claims this has contributed to a "state theory of learning". '

Again the report comments on the damaging nature of the overload of testing and targets and states:

"The evidence on the impact of the various initiatives on standards of pupil attainment is at best equivocal and at worst negative. While test scores have risen since the mid 1990s, this has been achieved at the expense of children's entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum and by the diversion of considerable teaching time to test preparation."

So the concept of a broad and balance curriculum is alive and well in educators' minds but does not find its way wholly into classrooms and make the desirable impact on children's lives. Are we surprised by this?

The Government, rather predictably states:

"Once again we see a collection of recycled, partial or out of date research.
We do not accept these claims. We are currently engaged in a review of the primary curriculum, as set out in the Children's Plan, which will build on a decade of success in raising standards – success which has been validated on numerous occasions by independent experts.
The government does not accept that our children are over-tested."

Just as a thought :' The Primary Review is an independent inquiry which is looking at 10 major themes before publishing final recommendations in October 2008.' I wonder if the research will be out of date?