Students to be given more mandatory subjects up to 16
A large education reform could see our children studying history, geography and foreign language till the age of 16.
An independent review has said that these subjects including design tech and the arts will be beneficial regardless of their GCSE choices.
The panel of experts heading the review have found that the United Kingdom begins to force its students to specialise much sooner than other countries with high achieving educational systems.
The consequence being:
“(Students are) deprived of access to powerful forms of knowledge and experience at a formative time in their lives”, the panel reported.
The report advised strongly that “curricular provision” would be necessary for the 14-16 year old students. Although the new system will be demanding teachers will have more leeway when it comes to what is actually studied in those classes and they will not impact directly on the student’s grades.
The new system would tie in well with the Baccalaureate, a new award that is granted to all students that leave GCSE with five Cs in the major subjects of English, maths, science, history, or geography and a foreign language.
General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, Brian Lightman, has said:
“One strength of the current curriculum is that it has enough flexibility to cater for students with a broad range of interests and abilities at ages 14 to 16.”
“What we do not want is an overly-prescriptive, one-size-fits-all curriculum that makes it more difficult for some students to engage and which puts them off learning. The curriculum must be flexible enough and slim enough for schools to be able to meet the needs of all students.”
Sadly Michael Gove has made a statement saying the new reforms may not be introduced until 2014 a full year later than originally predicted.
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