Prince Charles to rewrite national curriculum

Prince Charles and former Countdown presenter Carole Vorderman are to be drafted in to rewrite the national curriculum, according to the Shadow Schools Secretary. Interviewed by the Times last week, Michael Gove set out plans to ‘rewrite the whole thing’ shortly after a general election victory because, he claimed, most parents would prefer a ‘traditional education, with children sitting in rows, learning the kings and queens of England, the great works of literature, proper mental arithmetic and algebra by the age of 11’.

Knowing the mind of ‘most’ of the 13 million parents in this country is impossible, but one thing that seems to be  seeping into parental consciousness is the resentment many teachers and heads feel about too many government initiatives that bring with them mountains of bureaucracy and paperwork.

A complete rewrite of the national curriculum is the last thing schools need at the moment, Many teachers do currently manage to combine traditional and innovative teaching styles with love of their subjects and respect for knowedge which goes beyond simply rote learning of dates, which in themselves are fairly meanginless without a historical context. What often impedes that is the requirement to teach to tests and exams which determine their school’s league table position.

Many also understand that acquiring skills is also important, not least the process of learning how to learn, how to apply knowledge in different contexts and how to use ICT. Organisations like the RSA have done work on alternative curricula like Opening Minds, which is proving popular and successful in some schools.

Prince Charles’ Teaching Institute obviously does interesting work and is well respected. And Carol Vorderman, (whose third class degree in engineering would not qualify her to be a teacher under Tory proposals for all teachers to have a 2:1 degree) may well have views on education. But it is hard to see what qualifies them, or the many other ‘great and good’ figures ( such as the historian Simon Schama and novelist Martin Amis) named by Gove, to know more about what makes a stimulating and engaging lesson than the many thousands of heads and teachers who are delivering them every day.

What this interview really tells us is that the Conservative government has every intention of interfering directly from the centre in how our schools are run, and fundamentally mistrusts teachers, in much the same way as the Labour government has done,  to teach in the way they think best for their pupils.

Most parents probably want their children to learn skills and knowledge, in lessons that are engaging and enjoyable, in schools where education isn’t compromised by the perverse incentives of the league tables. The politicians should set clear aims for schools, that could include the social and moral purpose of education as well as ensuring literacy and numeracy in a broad and balanced curriculum, then back off and leave teaching to the professionals. Judging by the pre-election skirmishes, that is increasingly unlikely to happen.