Monday, December 06, 2010
Labour's legacy part two
Interesting article in this morning's Guardian suggesting that results from the most respected international study of achievement in literacy, maths and science due out tomorrow are likely to show that schools in Britain are performing poorly compared with those in other countries.
The paper says that the coalition government will point to the OECD figures, that compare British pupils with teenagers in other developed nations is evidence of a decline in standards under the previous government:
The education secretary, Michael Gove, who is thought to have seen the OECD results, told the Commons recently that England was "failing to keep pace" with competitors. He said: "In the last three years of the last government reform went into reverse – schools lost freedoms, the curriculum lost rigour, Labour lost its way. Now, under this coalition government, we are once more travelling in the same direction as the most ambitious and most progressive nations."
There is no indication as to how Wales will fare in this survey, if indeed it has been reported separately but we will be watching intently.
The paper says that the coalition government will point to the OECD figures, that compare British pupils with teenagers in other developed nations is evidence of a decline in standards under the previous government:
The education secretary, Michael Gove, who is thought to have seen the OECD results, told the Commons recently that England was "failing to keep pace" with competitors. He said: "In the last three years of the last government reform went into reverse – schools lost freedoms, the curriculum lost rigour, Labour lost its way. Now, under this coalition government, we are once more travelling in the same direction as the most ambitious and most progressive nations."
There is no indication as to how Wales will fare in this survey, if indeed it has been reported separately but we will be watching intently.
