One of the most influential voices in global education has said he likes the look of Ofsted’s new inspection framework. 

Andreas Schleicher, the director for education and skills at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), said “putting greater emphasis” on the curriculum could allow inspectors “to value work of teachers that does not feature in exam results”.

Mr Schleicher, who heads the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa), was in London today to address the Education World Forum. 

Speaking to journalists this morning, he sounded an optimistic note about Ofsted’s new framework, which is set to shift the focus of inspections away from exam results and towards the curriculum. 

Mr Schleicher drew a distinction between what he called the “implemented” curriculum - how a curriculum appears in schools - and the “achieved” curriculum - how this is reflected in exam results.

Exam results ‘are just one part of the picture’ 

“The curriculum in a school is the implemented curriculum; exam results should be the achieved curriculum,” he said.

“Often the achieved curriculum looks very narrowly at individual aspects, and putting greater emphasis on the implemented curriculum can be an instrument to take a more holistic view to education, to value work of teachers that does not feature in exam results.”

He continued: “I like the approach of giving the implemented curriculum and instructional approach in the school sufficient emphasis - at least for the time being when we’re not good enough to reflect all aspects of the implemented curriculum in achievement results.”

Mr Schleicher also said that England was not alone in focusing its inspection system on non-exam elements.

“We see that in many countries,” he said. “If you look to inspection in Belgium, if you look to inspection in the Netherlands, there’s a great emphasis on people actually observing what happens in classrooms, observing what are the intended practices.”

However, he said it was important to find “a good balance”, and that exams remained crucial. 

“It’s a question of balance,” Mr Schleicher said. “I do think exam results are really important, but it’s one part of the picture.”