The House of Lords’ inquiry into education for 11-16 year olds comes on the back of a number of important reports over recent years that have been calling for reform of our secondary schools. There is widespread support for a rethinking of the current system to ensure that schools are equipping learners with the skills they need for life and work, and it is heartening to see policymakers giving this issue the attention it deserves.
So we were delighted to present evidence to the committee on this important topic. Our Executive Director, Olly Newton drew on our skills shortages work and our recent research into schools – he outlined the challenges learners are facing due to school accountability measures, the narrowing of the curriculum, and an assessment system that places too much emphasis on knowledge over skills.
He highlighted that “we need to think about the impact that the knowledge heavy, exam saturated system is having on our learners. Rote-learning and cramming in huge amounts of knowledge doesn’t provide enough time for the development of broader essential skills – creativity, team-working – these are skills that employers tell us time and again are needed”
He also highlighted some practical solutions for education reform
i) Reform accountability measures such as Progress 8. Our joint campaign #saveoursubjects aims to do just this
ii) Scale up good examples such as Project Qualifications
iii) Put rocket boosters behind Gatsby benchmark 4 [linking the curriculum to careers]
iv) Learn from past examples such as the 14-19 Diplomas and Young Apprenticeships
v) Encourage multi-modal assessment and a broad learner profile to showcase the talents of young people
You can watch Olly presenting evidence on parliamentlive.tv here
Read our written evidence to the inquiry below.
