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Ministers should reform the secondary faculty curriculum in England to deal with “obtrusive omissions” on local weather change and digital literacy, based on a assessment of the schooling system for 11- to 16-year-olds by a prime examination board.
Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations (OCR) on Wednesday known as for the creation of an unbiased physique to take care of a “way more modern and forward-looking” curriculum that displays the “variety of recent Britain”.
The findings of the OCR report, led by former schooling secretary Charles Clarke, come because the Labour authorities consults on a proposed overhaul of the varsity curriculum, with consultants calling for gradual reform after many years of rare “huge bang modifications”.
Clarke informed the Monetary Occasions that ministers wanted to make sure continuous curriculum reform that was not “topic to the whim of political fantasy”.
“We have to transfer away from this concept {that a} new secretary of state is available in after which there’s an enormous set of modifications,” he stated. “The system can’t be immediately reworked by some silver bullet. It’s bought to be evolution, not revolution.”
The assessment known as on authorities to “present management and a way of urgency” by recognising “obtrusive omissions” on local weather change and sustainability extra explicitly within the curriculum.
Alongside updates to make syllabuses extra reflective of social variety, it beneficial reinstating digital literacy, highlighting the necessity for schooling concerning the moral use of social media and the suitable use of synthetic intelligence.
Clarke stated that whereas he hoped the findings would feed into the federal government assessment being led by Becky Francis, chief govt of the Schooling Endowment Basis charity, it was necessary to have cross-party consensus on reform.
“It’s troublesome to get an agreed means of transferring ahead except each opposition and authorities agree,” he added.
The Division for Schooling stated “excessive and rising requirements are on the coronary heart of the federal government’s mission to interrupt down the boundaries to alternative”.
The assessment led by Francis would “think about how to make sure younger folks get the chance to entry a broad and balanced curriculum” and “work to ship a system that balances completely different evaluation strategies alongside the significance of exams”, it added.
Damian Hinds, Conservative shadow schooling secretary, stated England had one of many world’s main schooling methods.
“Against this, the final Labour authorities’s erosion of requirements noticed us fall down the worldwide rankings. They have to not repeat this for the sake of ideology, and we’ll maintain them to account on it,” he stated.
Along with curriculum reform, Clarke known as for brand spanking new digital maths and English assessments to be launched for 14-year-olds to be able to present a “structured focus” within the first few years of secondary schooling.
“A big variety of youngsters are leaving faculty with out the fundamental foundational competences in English and maths,” he stated. “The thought you cope with that by remedial work and resits on the age of 17 or 18 appears fairly incorrect. You need to be what you are able to do earlier than you even get to GCSEs.”
About 40 per cent of scholars didn’t move maths GCSE this 12 months, with an analogous fee for English, based on knowledge printed final month that confirmed widening regional disparities.
The Royal Society on Tuesday additionally known as for an overhaul of maths schooling, warning that the UK risked being “left within the sluggish lane”.
Sir Martin Taylor, chair of the Royal Society advisory committee on arithmetic schooling, criticised the requirement of those that failed GCSE maths to re-take exams repeatedly as “one of many best scandals”.
The OCR assessment beneficial reducing the length and variety of exams for maths GCSE and steered transferring some “extra demanding” content material into extra {qualifications} taken by excessive achievers.
Clarke stated the problems with maths mirrored a broader overreliance on exams and “overloaded” content material at GCSE stage, with the typical 16-year-old in England sitting greater than 31 hours of exams, way over their worldwide friends.
The OCR report beneficial rebalancing the system by scheduling exams over an extended time interval and reviewing using different types of evaluation.
Daniel Kebede, common secretary of the Nationwide Schooling Union, stated the report added to proof that the examination system was “not match for goal”.
