One-third of businesses are dissatisfied with school leavers’ literacy and numeracy skills, according to a new survey – a problem the government will try to address this week with a draft primary school curriculum that will specify words and grammar that children must learn at each age.
The survey of 542 companies, undertaken by the CBI employers’ group and Pearson UK, the British education arm of the company which owns the Financial Times, suggested that there had been little improvement in basic skills over the past decade, when a similar question received similar answers.
A further proposal for reforming the primary curriculum, also under consultation, would make foreign languages mandatory from the age of seven. In 2010, the coalition government had dropped the previous administration’s plans to make them compulsory.