NC25: Memorandum
submitted by Oxfam Education and Youth
Executive Summary
Oxfam hopes that the Children,
Schools and Families Committee will take seriously during the inquiry into the
national curriculum the need to set learning within a global context. We live
in a world of accelerating global change and education needs to keep pace. As a
result of this enquiry the committee must urge the government to make the
necessary changes to teacher training, assessment and inspection to support the
creation of a curriculum fit for the twenty first century.
IMPROVING FITNESS FOR PURPOSE
1. The National Curriculum should be seen as
providing a common framework in which teachers, schools and communities develop
a relevant and engaging experience for children and young people. We support
the increased flexibility being introduced by the new secondary curriculum from
September 2008 and hope that - with the appropriate support to teachers - it
provides a better balance between central prescription and professional-led
teaching practice.
2. A central aim of the National Curriculum must
be to prepare children and young people to overcome the challenges and thrive
on the opportunities of our globalised and interdependent world. The Oxfam 2007
Survey of Teachers shows 99% of teachers think education for global citizenship
is important, but confidence in teaching the subject is low.
3. In order to improve the fitness for purpose
of the National Curriculum appropriate support must be given to teachers to
foreground the global dimension in all learning. Teacher training and
Continuing Professional Development must enable teachers to, among other
things, explore the global context, develop active and collaborative learning
methods and handle controversial issues in the classroom with care, confidence
and competence. Only 8% of teachers say they have accessed such continuing
professional development (CPD) on Global Citizenship (Oxfam Survey of Teachers
2007).
4. Oxfam is clear that teachers who teach in a
global context develop the critical thinking, teamwork, cooperation,
communication, conflict resolution and adapting to changing circumstances
skills that are crucial for overcoming the challenges - and thriving on the
opportunities - of a globalised world.
KEEPING BAD COMPANY
5. The National Curriculum is at present keeping
bad company. The testing, assessment and inspection regime do not support the
development of a relevant and engaging experience for children and young people
that the National Curriculum aspires to achieve.
6. Evidence submitted to this Select Committee's
own inquiry into assessment clearly showed that a decade's focus on testing
means an increasingly narrow and shallow education experience. A clutch of GCSE's at A-C does not, on its
own, mean that school leavers have the skills, knowledge and values needed to
make a positive social and economic contribution - securing their own well
being and that of others, locally and globally.
7. In order to strengthen the National
Curriculum, assessment should maximise personal development and sense self
worth, combine self, peer, teacher, parental/carer and employer assessment, use
methods that work for learners and the school community and values breadth of
achievement and collaboration. The development of such assessment tools would
promote a broad, engaging curriculum and inform teaching practice.
8. Inspection - to ensure children and young
people have a relevant and engaging education experience - should set a clear
national expectation that the global context is fundamental to learning.
National guidance from Ofsted should encourage inspectors to recognise the
teaching styles and methods that are best used to develop important skills and
competencies needed for work and life.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL
CURRICULUM
9. Learning in its global context is extremely
relevant to the lives of children and young people. National arrangements for assessment, inspection and teacher
training/CPD should empower teachers to fulfil the right of every child to a
quality education that is fit for the twenty first century.
10. The National Curriculum should be strengthened
in the future by;
- Supporting teachers to undertake appropriate
CPD to ensure learning is brought to life in a global context
- Changes to assessment and inspection
policies which emphasise and create space for creativity and professional
autonomy
- Developing a range of local and national
assessment tools for tracking skills progression.
March
2008