From Baker to Balls: the Foundations of the Education System
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House of Commons Children, Schools and Families Committee From Baker to Balls: the foundations of the education system Ninth Report of Session 2009–10 Report, together with formal minutes and oral evidence Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 24 March 2010 HC 422 Published on 6 April 2010 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £0.00 The Children, Schools and Families Committee The Children, Schools and Families Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department for Children, Schools and Families and its associated public bodies. Membership at time Report agreed Mr Barry Sheerman MP (Labour, Huddersfield) (Chair) Annette Brooke MP (Liberal Democrat, Mid Dorset & Poole North) Ms Karen Buck MP (Labour, Regent’s Park & Kensington North) Mr Douglas Carswell MP (Conservative, Harwich) Mr David Chaytor MP (Labour, Bury North) Mrs Sharon Hodgson MP (Labour, Gateshead East & Washington West) Paul Holmes MP (Liberal Democrat, Chesterfield) Fiona Mactaggart MP (Labour, Slough) Mr Andrew Pelling MP (Independent, Croydon Central) Helen Southworth MP (Labour, Warrington South) Mr Graham Stuart MP (Conservative, Beverley & Holderness) Mr Edward Timpson MP (Conservative, Crewe & Nantwich) Derek Twigg MP (Labour, Halton) Lynda Waltho MP (Labour, Stourbridge) Powers The Committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the Internet via www.parliament.uk Publications The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the Internet at www.parliament.uk/csf/ Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Kenneth Fox (Clerk), Anne-Marie Griffiths (Second Clerk), Emma Wisby (Committee Specialist), Judith Boyce (Committee Specialist), Jenny Nelson (Senior Committee Assistant), Kathryn Smith (Committee Assistant), Sharon Silcox (Committee Support Assistant), and Brendan Greene (Office Support Assistant). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Children, Schools and Families Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 6181; the Committee’s e- mail address is csfcom@parliament From Baker to Balls: the foundations of the education system 1 Contents Report Page 1 From Baker to Balls: the foundations of the education system 3 Centralism or localism? 3 Coherence 6 The next Parliament 7 Appendix 1: Testing and Assessment: Conclusions and Recommendations 8 Appendix 2: National Curriculum: Conclusions and Recommendations 14 Appendix 3: School Accountability: Conclusions and Recommendations 19 Appendix 4: Training of Teachers: Conclusions and Recommendations 27 Formal Minutes 32 Witnesses 33 List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament 33 From Baker to Balls: the foundations of the education system 3 1 From Baker to Balls: the foundations of the education system 1. This Committee, soon after it first met in November 2007, took the decision to hold inquiries into each of the pillars of the schools system: the National Curriculum, national testing and assessment, accountability structures, and the training of teachers. In doing so, we were conscious of the twenty years which had elapsed since the passing of the Education Reform Act 1988, which underpins so much of what schools do today. 2. The purpose of this short Report is to draw attention to some of the themes which unify these Reports and to provide a little historical context. We attach as Appendices the conclusions and recommendations from each of the four Reports. We also publish alongside the Report oral evidence taken from four former Secretaries of State and from the current Secretary of State, each speaking about the direction of education policy over the last twenty years and into the future. 3. It was illuminating and instructive to hear four former Secretaries of State engage in discussion with us⎯and amongst themselves⎯on the principles of education policy. We are most grateful to them and to the current Secretary of State for being candid and forthcoming in their reflections, and we have drawn on their evidence in this Report. We encourage future select committees to take the opportunity, if and when former Ministers are willing, to hold similar evidence sessions and to gather a historical perspective. Centralism or localism? 4. The most persistent theme running through each of the three inquiries was the tension between central and local responsibility and control. This was especially marked in evidence on the level of prescription within the National Curriculum and the guidance on how it is to be taught; the balance between testing according to a national standard and assessment performed by a teacher with knowledge of a pupil’s capacity and wider understanding; and inspection of school performance against criteria common to schools across the country as opposed to self-evaluation by a school. 5. The thrust of our Reports has been to urge a move away from central control. We believe that governments need to provide broad frameworks rather than seeking to micro-manage the day to day work of teachers. We favour: — a National Curriculum which prescribes as little as possible and with decisions being made at the lowest appropriate level;1 — an extension to all maintained schools of the freedom enjoyed by many Academies not to follow the National Curriculum in its entirety;2 1 National Curriculum, Fourth Report from the Committee, Session 2008–09, HC 344-I,paragraphs 53 and 56 2 National Curriculum, Fourth Report from the Committee, Session 2008–09, HC 344-I,paragraph 73 4 From Baker to Balls: the foundations of the education system — an accountability system which encourages and supports schools towards a meaningful, continuous self-assessment process, with true self-evaluation being at the heart of what a good school does3 and schools being genuinely responsible for their own improvement;4 and — teacher assessment as a significant part of a national assessment regime, with the purposes of national testing being more carefully defined.5 6. The challenge is to achieve a balance which respects the expectation from employers, parents and further and higher education institutions that children will leave school with a core of knowledge,6 and which at the same time allows schools and teachers the freedom to experiment in the quest to provide a learning environment which is stimulating for teachers and pupils alike. The difficulties of achieving this balance, while pressing forward with personal convictions, were familiar to the former Secretaries of State who gave evidence.7 Mr Blunkett said that “we’re all full of contradictions” and gave examples8 (as indeed did Mr Balls);9 and he spoke of the need to have “levers to pull” to implement some of his policy objectives. One previous incumbent has recorded their frustration at finding, when arriving in office, that “there were no levers to pull at all”.10 7. In all of the four areas which we looked at, there has, over most of the last twenty years, been a relentless trend towards increased central control, although there are recent signs that the balance may now be starting to be redressed. We criticised the level of prescription and central control both in the National Curriculum as it stood in 2009 and in the National Strategies which were designed to support it; but that criticism of the Curriculum would have been equally valid⎯in fact, more so⎯when the National Curriculum was first introduced, under a Conservative Government, following the passage of the Education Reform Act 1988. Lord Baker readily accepted this in evidence to us.11 8. The current Government has decided to end the contract to run the National Strategies first introduced by Mr Blunkett in the early years of a previous term of this Labour Government. Mr Balls described the National Strategies as being “exactly the right reform 12 years ago” but added that “twelve years on, we are in a more mature place than a national central field force giving advice to schools ... the National Strategies have had their day, but those days are gone”.12 9. We were pleased to hear Mr Balls speak of the need to “have the confidence to devolve more resource and decision-making down to the individual school level” and to aim for 3 School Accountability, First Report from the Committee, Session 2009–10, HC 88-I, paragraph 63 4 School Accountability, First Report from the Committee, Session 2009–10, HC 88-I, paragraph 260 5 Testing and Assessment, Third Report from the Committee, Session 2007–08, HC 169-I, paragraphs 58 and 61 6 See Baroness Morris, Q 8 7 Lord Baker distinguished between the right of the state to decide a framework of education and the role of teachers in teaching and applying that framework: Q 2 8 Q 5 9 Q 51 10 Rt Hon Baroness Shephard of Northwold: see Q 6 11 Q 10, Lord Baker was agreeing that the curriculum had been ‘over prescriptive’ and ‘too long’. 12 Q 55 From Baker to Balls: the foundations of the education system 5 more local accountability.13 Our only concern⎯and one which we voiced in our report on School Accountability⎯is whether actions will match rhetoric. We found ample evidence in that inquiry that the Government, contrary to the statement in the recent White Paper that each school was responsible for its own improvement,14 was trying to drive improvement through central programmes and targets, some of which had a distorting effect and were perceived as harmful.15 A better approach would be for the Government to place more faith in the professionalism of teachers and to support them with a simplified accountability and improvement system which challenges and which encourages good practice rather than stigmatising and undermining those who are struggling.16 10.