Primary schools 'have got worse'

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.

This is a warning that when you use targets and measurement you may distort the system by forgetting what is outside the measurement system. We must certainly not allow the schools to forget the wider objectives of encouraging learning in general and ensuring they are motivated.

I agree that literacy and numeracy are key objectives but we should find a third measure of general knowledge that could be simply tested. The tests should not be too time-consuming or control the curriculum. The results must show that the child has the necessary skills to benefit from secondary school. The schools should be measured on an overall attainment score combined with the percentage of children that fail.

Primary Curricculum and Assessment

In summary, formal assessment in England, compared to our review countries, is pervasive, highly consequential, and taken by officialdom to portray objectively the actual quality of primary education in schools. Wales and Northern Ireland have significantly tempered their emphasis on testing in recent reforms such that they are now (along with Scotland) as different from England as are other European countries. What distinguishes assessment policy in England then is the degree to which it is used as a tool a) to control what is taught, b) to police how well it is taught, and c) to encourage parents to use assessment information to select schools for their children.

Such is a conclusion from the Academic primary review.

With that degree of control, the government must accept direct and virtually total responsibility for results. They cannot blame teachers or parents for any failing because they have not allowed them room to decide and apply their own solutions.