Thursday, February 16, 2012

Why nationalized core curriculum levels might be a craze of the past


The present national curriculum assessments intend to extend how the foundation subjects are taught in schools, by September 2013.

Many reviewers have recommended the current curriculum is too content grave. The new assessment aims to alter this, defining only “core knowledge” and idea for pupils to learn. This is a move well received by professionals so far.However, the way pupil expectation and progress are expressed in the curriculum could also come under scrutiny. With experts holding different views on this aspect of education, support is far from unanimous.

The review board is considering abolishing national curriculum levels. Currently, children can progress at any age, moving through these levels based entirely on ability.


Under new plans, students would learn key aspects of each subject, but only at specified points in their education. Tim Oates, who leads the review, said the levels were “defective” and argued that they didn’t help students or parent’s to understand progress. He believes that levels lower expectations, hindering pupils of a lower ability. This has prompted disagreement, with fears of children getting left behind. One professional stated “There are going to be quite a lot of kids failing all of them one year, then the following year, and so on. The effect of that needs to be considered.”

With this being one of many issues facing the review board, the decision making process appears to be far from over.

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