Young people across the country have been receiving their exam results this month, the culmination of years of their own work and that of their teachers. The content and volume of this assessment reflects the present arrangements for curriculum and assessment - which I have been tasked to review. (The members of the review panel can be found here.)
This is no easy task, but a vital one. Vital for the children and young people that study the curriculum, the professionals that teach it, and our wider society that benefits collectively - socially and economically - from the knowledge and skills gained by those who will grow up to shape the society of the future.
It is because of this importance that I relish the task and gravity of the review.
Curriculum and assessment review
We can all agree on the importance of the curriculum and that it should contain the most valuable knowledge and skills for young people’s later lives. But it is much harder to find agreement on the content of the curriculum.
Our perceptions are shaped by our personal preferences, experiences and political persuasions. And given the personal and societal importance of the curriculum, and that the curriculum and time for its delivery is finite, it is no wonder it is contentious.
Schooling is society’s collective investment for socialising our young people with the most important knowledge and skills to support our collective future. No wonder, then, that what it contains is so passionately debated!
Diversity of curriculum
Hence to approach a review of this nature has some daunting elements.
I am well aware of the diversity of views on the curriculum; the variety of important stakeholders in the field; the connectivity between curriculum, assessment, qualifications, accountability, structures and pedagogy and related complexity; and the unintended consequences that have so often followed tinkering in this space.
I am also aware of two key capacity issues.
Teacher workload
Firstly, the capacity of the teaching and education workforce. Our educators are valiant, but presently tired and depleted. Teachers have delivered the curriculum changes and focus on standards encouraged by a series of governments since Tony Blair’s ‘Education, Education, Education’ agenda, and our international standing reflects their hard work.
But the sector is facing huge challenges in terms of recruitment and retention, further compounding the workload challenges that contributed to this trend.
Overloaded curriculum?
The second is the capacity of the curriculum itself. There are myriad subjects, topics and issues that different stakeholders would like to see inserted or given more time in the curriculum. Yet another common view is that the present curriculum is over-laden and over-prescribed. If you add things in, you have to remove others. And there is little agreement on what might be removed.
These are just a couple among the long list of dilemmas and trade-offs that the review will need to consider. Nevertheless, the opportunity to review our curriculum and assessment system is a hugely exciting one.
An opportunity to seek to alleviate some of the pressure and constraint on learners and educators; to reduce the assessment burden where feasible and appropriate (while continuing to recognise the progressive benefits of public examinations); to facilitate professional expertise; to address longstanding challenges in ensuring meaningful, rigorous and high-value pathways for all at 16-19; to make sure the curriculum is inclusive and accessible for all our young people; and to address injustices and unintended consequences.
And in doing so, to ensure that young people in all their diversity are able to experience the joy of learning, and to be valued.
Terms of reference
To this end, I have worked with the Secretary of State to develop a series of principles, appended to the Review Aims and Terms of Reference, which I hope will guide us in navigating the many hurdles towards this prize.
- The review will be rigorously evidence- and data-informed. The review will not be distracted by myths, assumed ‘truths’ or behaviours in other national systems without evidence of need and/or benefit.
- The review will seek evolution not revolution. The review will recognise the hard work and successes of those working in education. The review will build on the existing relative strengths of a system with finite resources and will not seek to fix things that are not broken.
- The review will be alive to trade-offs, with attention paid to the practicalities of implementation and to the avoidance of unintended consequences and additional workload for education staff.
- The review will seek to identify and focus on addressing the most significant and pressing issues facing curriculum and assessment without destabilising the system. The review will recognise that reforms to curriculum and assessment necessarily impact the education sector and, if undertaken in an unfocused manner, risk creating significant additional work for education staff and incurring high opportunity costs. The review will recognise that it is unable to address every issue facing the education system and that changes to the curriculum and assessment system cannot address every issue facing children and young people, or wider society.
- The review will maintain our country’s longstanding commitment to a high-quality comprehensive curriculum for all to 16.
- The review will identify those elements of our existing system that can lead to barriers to accessing quality provision and/or to particular pathways. The review will identify these and develop solutions.
- The review will be undertaken in close consultation with education professionals and other experts, parents, children and young people, and stakeholders such as employers, colleges, universities and trade unions.
In the coming weeks, we will be communicating more about the review’s work, and launching the ‘Call for Evidence’.
While the review won’t be able to address every issue linked to curriculum and assessment, I am confident that, by focusing on some key challenges, drawing on data and evidence, and listening to the views of the sector, we can develop an offer that works for young people and education professionals alike.
Professor Becky Francis is CEO of the EEF and is leading the government’s curriculum and assessment review
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