The emphasis on league tables does not encourage young people to learn to think for themselves
It is nearly 35 years since James Callaghan gave his speech in 1976 at Ruskin College, Oxford, calling for a “great debate” on education to address the disappointing performance of far too many children. From the Ruskin speech flowed a greater involvement of government in state education and the founding of the national curriculum 10 years later.
The years after 1976 have seen school teaching change beyond recognition. The curriculum has become more uniform, inspection is much tighter and more prescriptive, and targets and league tables are the principal drivers of school improvement. Lazy teachers and ineffective schools have been tackled under this centralising imperative.
However, concerns are now heard that the new focus on league tables is narrowing the quality and breadth of education. Universities and employers often feel that schools are very effective in instructing their pupils in how to get top marks, but are less impressive at teaching them how to think.