Teachers have accused the government of promoting a “narrow ideological view of education” and are calling on it to give them more freedom to decide what to teach.

At the NEU teaching union’s annual conference today, delegates backed a motion stating that “the government has sought to impose its own vision of curriculum and pedagogy” in the wake of Covid-19.

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The government has encouraged a model of pedagogy where “all children sit in rows and face the front all the time in class”, and has focused “solely on ‘catch up’ rather than allowing educators to make their own judgements about the needs of the children that they teach”, the motion says.

‘Harmful’ DfE efforts to control classroom teaching

The delegates have called for subject teaching to be more creative, as “the formal three-part lesson is the greatest way that pupils can be turned off a subject”.

And members also voted to campaign for a “diverse, inclusive curriculum which meets the needs of all students and young people”, saying that “a high degree of teacher autonomy is required to ensure that all children are able to achieve”. 

Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU, said: “We need the government to leave the classroom. Its efforts to control in detail what is taught and how it is taught are harmful to students and frustrating for those who work in schools.

“Educators have learned much during the pandemic about the ways in which they can understand and support the needs of learners - and they have also seen that centralised attempts to regulate the work of schools have hindered their efforts,

“In place of micro-management, teachers need space to make a curriculum that is broad and balanced, offering opportunities for creativity, exploration and for meaningful, collaborative learning.”