A recent OECD report comparing educational attainment of secondary school students across the world in reading, mathematics and science saw the UK and the USA well outside the top ten.
The new UK government was shocked by this report and believes that unless something is done to reverse this trend by 2030 Britain will have one of the most poorly educated workforces in the world.
Michael Gove, the Tory Secretary of State for Education, is convinced that British schools are not challenging their students and the educational establishment has placed too much emphasis upon keeping kids unpressured than preparing them for what is becoming a tough, unforgiving world. Although exam grades at 16 have “improved” steadily over the last few years Gove suspects that this has been achieved by lowering standards and allowing students to take mickey mouse subjects (Media Studies, Leisure Studies anyone?) instead of harder ones like sciences or languages.
Mr Gove believes that under Labour, many schools pushed children towards less academic qualifications and subjects to boost their league table rankings.
“Labour got its priorities wrong and said kids from poor homes could not do difficult subjects,” he said.
So he has introduced a new benchmark for comparing schools – how many students at 16 score grade C or above in English, Mathematics, a modern language, two sciences and either Geography or History.
Using this benchmark only about 15% of all 16 year olds achieved a satisfactory standard
The OECD report reinforced this grim indictment of British secondary education
British schoolchildren are now ranked 16th in the world for science, 25th for reading and 28th for maths, according to the OECD’s 2009 PISA report. That compares with a 2000 PISA ranking of 4th for science, 7th for reading and 8th for maths. This is conclusive proof that Labour’s claim to have “improved” Britain’s schools during its period in office is utter nonsense. Spending on education increased by £30 billion under the last government, yet between 2000-09 British schoolchildren plummeted in the international league tables and are now ranked behind those of Poland, Estonia and Slovenia.
Seeing the disdainful reaction of many Head Teachers to Gove’s proposals (reported approvingly by the BBC – surprise, surprise) one can see the reason why we rank so low. Gove is taking on an entrenched establishment that uses smug self congratulation to camouflage a default position of inertia. The scenario will be brutal and bloody but if he does not win, then within 20 years we will be on the level of Kyrgyztan or Azebaijan……
