Education: inspirational or
instrumental?
A talk for the Chinese Senior Civil
Servants’ Programme
2004
It is important in understanding English
Education…
…to distinguish between…
…schools that are maintained by the state…
…and schools that are independent of the state
State schools are paid for through taxation…
…and required to teach the National
Curriculum…
…and whose standards are monitored by the
government’s inspection service
7% of English children are educated
independently…
…their parents paying fees in addition to their
taxes…
…these schools do not have to teach the National
Curriculum (though many do)…
…and they have their own inspection service…
…although they are monitored by the DfES too
I shall be talking only about state schools…
…and only about state schools in England…
…because Scotland, Wales and Ireland all
have their own…
…very different educational systems
There are 23,000 primary schools…
…and 4,500 secondary schools in England…
…25% of these schools are run by the
Church…
…and a very small number by other faith
groups
The Structure of the State Education System in
England
The Secretary of State
The DfES
QCA
OfSTED
The Local Education Authorities
Schools’ Governing Bodies
5.2% of our gross domestic product is spent
on schools…
…giving a budget of £5500 per pupil…
…this money is distributed through the Local
Education Authorities…
…who withhold about £500 per child for
special educational, needs, transport and
administration
Schooling is compulsory for all children
between 5 and 16 in England and these
children are divided into 4 ‘Key Stages’:
Key Stage One – age 5-7
Key Stage Two – age 7-11
Key Stage Three – age 11-14
Key Stage Four – age 14-16
At 16 pupils take the General Certificate of
Secondary Education…
…in anything up to 13 subjects…
…after which they can, if they choose, leave
school for good
There is a great deal of discussion currently,
however…
…about whether the years from 14-19…
…shouldn’t be treated as a complete unit, perhaps
abolishing the GCSE…
…so that children, at 14 get ‘locked into’ a path that
takes them to 19…
…giving them less incentive to leave at 16
Our government is currently aiming…
… to get 50% of our young people into
further or higher education…
…though this goal is hugely
controversial…
…many people, including many
universities being very unhappy about it
…I shall be talking only about the years of
compulsory schooling…
…and mainly about secondary schooling
The National Curriculum was introduced in
1988 by the Education Reform Act
It was a response to concerns about:
• lack of coherence in the system
• falling standards
The Core Subjects of the National Curriculum
are English, Maths and Science…
…every child must study each of these
throughout the years of their compulsory
schooling
The foundation subjects of the National Curriculum
are…
…history, geography, modern languages, music, art,
PE, design and technology, information technology
and citizenship…
…pupils must study these until they finish Key Stage
Three…
…but then they can drop some of these subjects
Every pupil in every school in the country must,
throughout the years of compulsory schooling…
… study religious education…
…using a syllabus decided locally…
…to ensure that it is sensitive to local concerns…
…but this syllabus must ‘recognise the fact that our
country has a Judeo-Christian tradition’
The ‘common requirements’ of the National
Curriculum:
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural
development
• Equal opportunities for different genders,
ethnicities,
disabilities and disadvantaged
• Promote the use of English and ICT across the
curriculum
The ‘Key Skills’:
* Communication *application of number
*information technology *working with
others *improving own learning and
performance *problem solving *thinking
skills *financial capability *enterprise and
entrepreneurial skills *work-related learning
*education for sustainable development
The Programmes of Study:
• Knowledge and Understanding
• Skills
• Breadth of Study
Attainment targets set out the targets that
pupils should have attained by certain stages
Level Descriptions set out the levels at which
they might attain these targets
At 7, 11 and 14 pupils sit SATs (Standardised
Attainment Tests) to measure their attainment
At 16 pupils sit the General Certificate of
Education in a number of subjects (sometimes
as many as 13)
Every maintained school in the country…
… is inspected on a regular basis by OfSTED
(the Office for Standards in Education)…
…if they do not meet the requirements the
schools can be closed…
…or put into ‘special measures’
OfSTED’s reports on each school are
published…
… and must be made available to parents on
request…
…newspapers use them to construct ‘league
tables’…
…that rank schools according to their results
in SATs, GCSE and A-Level
Current educational issues in England:
• Diversity of schooling
• Parental choice
• Initiative Overload
• ‘Death by Examination’
• Grade Inflation
• Instrumentalism