Select Committee on Education and Employment Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence


APPENDIX 4

Memorandum from Marika Sherwood, Black and Asian Studies Association (OAR 06)

I wish to submit the following questions based on Mr Woodhead's Annual Report.

  On Page 41, #112, the report states that "Almost all schools meet the requirements of National Curriculum history". Given that the National Curriculum states that "Pupils should be taught . . . about the social, cultural, religious and ethnic diversity of the societies studied, in Britain and the wider world", are we to understand that the Chief Inspector is satisfied that this is being done? If so, how does he make this assessment, as on 27 February 1996 Mr Woodhead informed the Black and Asian Studies Association that "no specific assessment is made of inspectors' knowledge of and interest in the diversity and richness of other cultures and pupils' own cultural traditions". Are we to understand that since 1996 new OFSTED inspectors are required to have such knowledge and that all those already working for OFSTED have attended in-service training courses on the history of Black (in the widest possible sense) peoples in Britain since Roman times?

  The Chief Inspector also states in the same paragraph that "pupils lack a context for their work and are unable to make relevant connections . . . some (schools) do not give sufficient emphasis to non-European history". In view of the fact that the National Curriculum suggests absolutely no links between the compulsory units of study and the options for world history, does the Chief Inspector envisage such changes, which could easily link, for example, "Britain 1500-1750" and the study of "West African empires", or "Islamic civilisations 7th to 16th centuries"? Such linkages would, inter alia, provide a "context for pupils' work".

Marika Sherwood
Secretary, Black and Asian Studies Association
February 2000


 
previous page contents next page

House of Commons home page Parliament home page House of Lords home page search page enquiries index

© Parliamentary copyright 2000
Prepared 16 May 2000