I found this article and thought this can only end in mayhem because it will cause lots of debate and the children, teachers and parents do not get the right information or answers . Gove trying to travel back to the 1950s is not the most ideal solution to the problems faced in our current education system.
In the 1940s and 1950s education was very much based around the three Rs principles of reading, writing and arithmetic. However my point is that education has progressed since then but why did it change? I believe that change tends to happen for a reason and for me the reason in this case is the pure fact that at the time was ineffective. It changed to include a variety of subjects both in secondary and primary education of English, maths, science, RE, geography, history, art, drama, music and a modern foreign language and even more at A Level (1).
However, this idea to reduce the subjects at GCSE and A Level will reduce the amount of freedom in society, because the children will not be able to develop and explore the world. It has even been stated by the educational psychologist Vygotsky that children learned through cultural signs and symbols. If there is focus on just these skills will children be able to develop creatively (2) .
I know that focusing on these three skills there would be less illiteracy in our country with currently around 16% of adults illiterate (3) .It is also evident that this could affect those children labelled with Special Educational Needs because they don't get to work to their strengths such as problem solving and creativity. This is highlighted in the statstics by the Department for Education which states that 'the proportion of pupils with SEN without a statement achieving achieved 5 or more A* to C grades at GCSE or equivalent including English and mathematics GCSEs is 24.7% , compared to 8.5% of pupils with SEN with a statement, and 69.5% of pupils with no identified SEN.' (4)
In conclusion it highlights that even though the reforms could be effective with illiteracy. The article also highlight that the reforms could affect the way in which our children develop. Therefore it could be predicted that with the already high unemployment rate, the unemployment rate will get even higher because the next generation will not be receiving the varied education needed to succeed.
If you want to know more detail about the article click the link below. Comment and share your thoughts on my article. Thank you for reading. Kat x
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-27680893
Sources
1. Gillard, D (2011) Education in England [online]
http://www.educationengland.org.uk/ (accessed: 11th June 2014)
2. Salvin,R (2000) Educational Psychology theory and practice. 6th. Massachuetts: Allyn & Bacon.
3.National Literacy Trust (2013) How many illiterate adults are there in England? [online]
http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/adult_literacy/illiterate_adults_in_england (accessed: 11th June 2014)
2. Department for Education (2012) GCSE and equivalent attainment pupil characteristics in England: 2010 to 2011 [online]
www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/data sets/a00202462/GCSE-equivalent-attainment-pupil-characteristics (accessed:
