TOBY YOUNG

The national curriculum is set to be made more ‘diverse’ under Labour plans – oh, and every school will have to teach it. The Telegraph has more.

Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, has begun a review to “refresh” what is taught in schools, pledging to “breathe new life into our outdated curriculum”.

The new curriculum will be compulsory in all state schools, including academies that were previously free to opt out.

The Telegraph can reveal that the Department for Education’s terms of reference for the overhaul explicitly say that the department (DfE) aims to create a curriculum that reflects the “diversities of our society” and help produce young people who “appreciate the diversity” of Britain.

This newspaper has also seen suggestions for changes to the curriculum that have been submitted to the review by unions and other teaching groups, including for how to “decolonise” subjects which have been branded too “mono-cultural”.

The moves were criticised by the Conservatives on Sunday night. Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary, said: “Instead of spending time fiddling with our academic curriculum, which has led to English children being the best at maths and English in the Western world, the DfE needs to concentrate on getting absence rates down and kids back in the classroom.”

Sir John Hayes, the former Conservative education minister, said the changes would “undermine the education of young people” for ideological reasons.

He added: “The truth of the matter is there’s a canon of English literature, there’s a factual basis to learning, and you can’t twist the facts to suit your political agenda.

“When you do you risk undermining the education of young people and leaving them ill-equipped for life beyond schooling.”

Sir John, who trained as a history teacher, warned that the move would add to the “distortion of history” for political reasons, adding: “The pretence that some things count and others don’t – that’s just not intellectually rigorous.”

The review, announced in July, is being led by Prof Becky Francis, a feminist professor who started a call for evidence in November urging teaching experts to offer proposals on achieving the aims of the curriculum overhaul.

Prof Francis, who criticised the Tony Blair government for “an obsession with academic achievement”, and the committee leading the review are now considering proposals suggested by teaching unions, school groups, think tanks and Royal Societies.

After a review of the evidence, an interim report is expected to be published in early 2025. A full set of recommendations to curriculum changes will be released later in the year.

Among the proposals submitted by major unions and educational institutions are suggestions of the introduction of more diverse material, particularly in “majority white” classrooms, and a move away from English literature which is seen as “traditional”.

The teachers’ union NASUWT, which has about 280,000 members across the UK, told the review that it must “embed anti-racist and decolonised approaches” in the curriculum and advised “inclusive curricula that reflect diverse authors, cultures and perspectives”.

The Association of School and College Leaders warned that “history and English curricula are seen as largely mono-cultural”, and welcomed plans to “diversify the curriculum”.

The group, which represents more than 25,000 senior secondary school teachers, warned that “in particular, ethnicity and sexual orientation are under-represented in the national curriculum”.

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) told the review that the planned curriculum must reflect “the diversity of our society”, adding that members saw the benefit of using diverse reading material for “subverting racial biases” especially when “teaching to a majority white classroom”.

Worth reading in full.

Stop Press: Bridget Phillipson has been accused of “gaslighting” middle-class parents after claiming that they support Labour’s private school tax raid. The Telegraph has more.

Via The Daily Sceptic

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RELATED

Labour urged to drop ‘Western-centric’ science in school curriculum

Prestigious scientific institutions’ call for diversity called ‘pure education vandalism’ by Tories

CRAIG SIMPSON

Royal societies are urging the Government to make science less “Western” in an overhaul of the school curriculum.

Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, announced an overhaul of the curriculum that explicitly aims to make subjects better reflect the “diversities of our society”.

A committee leading the Department for Education’s curriculum review is currently considering the proposals of Royal societies, teaching unions, and other experts.

Prestigious scientific institutions have supported the call for diversity, and proposed the teaching of more “non-Western” discoveries.

The Royal Society of Biology has advised the committee that children should be taught about “non-Western contributions to the sciences”.

The society has recommended a “no more heroes” approach which avoids “prescriptive lists of historic figures in biology” in favour of “diverse historic and contemporary figures”.

This builds on the society’s previous work on the curriculum, which claimed: “Science is universal, has been and is carried out in all cultures at all ages, creating a diverse scientific global community.”

‘Wokerati’

Richard Tice, the Reform UK deputy leader, told The Telegraph that he thought the plans were “a ludicrous proposal from the wokerati”.

He added: “We need more historic British heroes and achievements to be taught to our children, not less.”

Laura Trott MP, the shadow education secretary, said: “Labour’s curriculum changes will drive down educational standards.

“Instead of continuing with a rich, knowledge-based curriculum which has led to our children being the best readers and mathematicians in the Western world, they are tearing it all up.

“Pure education vandalism once again.”

The Institute of Physics said that children should be taught that the development of physics “relied on ideas and thinking from many people and varied groups globally”.

As well as attempting to teach non-Western science, and explaining the prevalence of Western ideas, societies have recommended downplaying famed scientists in favour of contemporary role models.

They have also argued that pupils should be taught about the reasons non-Western regions made fewer scientific breakthroughs.

The Institute of Physics advised that scientific ideas should be “framed in the context of the times in which discoveries were made and accredited within Western science”.

The society suggested that teachers can tell pupils that “many of those discoveries drew on earlier work in other parts of the world”. […]

Unions among groups submitting proposals

The new curriculum will be compulsory in all state schools, including academies.

Unions are among other groups that have submitted proposals to the review, including suggestions to “embed anti-racist and decolonised approaches” in the curriculum and shake up “history and English curricula” that are “seen as largely monocultural”.

The Telegraph: continue reading