There was a boy in my rural primary school who we used to tease as the village idiot. He was popular though, and we fiercely defended him if anyone bullied him. Our two teachers worked hard to fit him into the school and thus the community, and in this they succeeded. I think he was a happy boy. Yet today that school would risk penalties for lowering its test score; and accommodating him would damage, not enhance, its reputation. That is the absurd situation in which our schools find themselves.
Recent revelations that pupils with special needs are being excluded to improve school performance can be put down to one thing: an obsession with testing. Since public league tables were introduced by John Patten in 1992, they have defined English education. First it was just A-levels, then GCSEs, then Sats, as the cry went out to measure everything.
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2D9gSAq
No comments:
Post a Comment