As you know, I have decided to read all the main parties' education manifestos. The second I have come across was from the Conservatives. The headlines say that they'll:
- ensure a good primary school place for your child, with zero tolerance for failure
- turn every failing and coasting secondary school into an academy and deliver free schools for parents and communities that want them
- help teachers to make Britain the best country in the world for developing maths, engineering, science and computing skills
- create 3 million new apprenticeships and make sure there is no cap on university places, so we have aspiration for all.
... and the action points say that "We will ...
- drive up standards in your child’s school
- ensure there is a good primary school place for your child, with zero tolerance of failure
- turn every failing and coasting secondary school into an academy, and deliver free schools if parents in your area want them
- continue to protect school funding
- back your child’s teachers
- lead the world in maths and science
- protect children
- improve skills training
- improve Further Education
- ensure that if you want to go to university, you can
- ensure that our universities remain world-leading."
If you read the whole thing, you will see that it's not quite a curriculum-free zone. There is, of course, no mention of ESD, etc, etc, or of sustainability – it's clear they think that they've already addressed such peripheral matters through recent revisions to the national curriculum. They say that they "will require secondary school pupils to take GCSEs in English, maths, science, a language and history or geography", punishing schools that refuse to do this. This is a clawing back of the ridiculous position that applied a few years back when a vocational course in underwater flower arranging (or somesuch) could count for about 6 "good GCSEs", which cynical school leaders exploited in their pursuit of league table success – a position that was connived at by government. It also re-establishes an important entitlement of all pupils, irrespective of culture or class background, to courses and qualifications that have meaning in the wider world. This is not to belittle flower arranging, above or under water; just to re-establish it is it proper place in the hierarchy of things. That is a worthy curriculum matter.
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