How Labour and the unions want to destroy our education system

Labour and the unions are preparing to damage our education system and harm our children.

It has been reported that the new government wants to reduce testing and move away from learning times tables and basic grammar.

This will be disastrous.

Since the new syllabus – which I advised on – was introduced in 2014, England has risen up the PISA rankings.

It put an emphasis on the teaching of basic grammar and literacy, as well as testing.

Scotland, which chose a more progressive education system, has slumped down the PISA rankings.

Labour’s proposals will destroy one of the few good things the last Conservative government did.

Scrapping times tables tests will be a retrograde step.

It is essential for basic numeracy and number bonding skills for a child to know their times tables.

Before the new curriculum was implemented in 2014 times tables were not required learning until the end of Year 6 and it was not enforced.

Without times tables children are reliant on calculators to do basic sums.

Long multiplication and long division can only be carried out if a child knows their times tables.

If anything, the curriculum needs strengthening and toughening up further. It is not demanding enough.

We should be more ambitious for our children.

If the UK is going to compete with the rest of the world it should look at what the most successful jurisdictions are doing.

For example, Singapore produces the best maths kids in the world. Their curriculum is structured and more traditional – and it works.

It is also important to teach grammar to children. It is important to know for example what a ‘fronted adverbial’ is as it can improve a child’s ability to write and express themselves.

Watering down the curriculum and the testing procedure is a real step backwards.

Children should also be tested before they go to secondary school. It is important for secondary schools, parents, primary schools, the government and the children themselves to know how they are performing.

The ‘pressure’ argument against testing is fallacious and ridiculous.

Children will face tests throughout their lives and it is important to do at least one set of tests near the end of primary education.

Learning to do exams and tests is an important part of education.

Good teachers conduct informal testing all the time in the classroom to check if children have understood what they have been taught.

Formal testing should be part of this process too.

Unions fear that testing will hold teachers to account – and it is true.

It can indicate that a school is not really delivering on its main objectives.

However, if schools are doing what they are supposed to do there is nothing to fear.