British teach less Churchill, more global warming

Starting next year British teenagers will face an exotic range of new disciplines designed to equip them with more practical skills.

from the July 24, 2007 edition

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But what are the basics? The government argues that in a fast-changing, complex world, the basics are as much about learning how to buy a house or manage relationships as they are about algebra or the Battle of Trafalgar.

Alan Cox of the government's Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) says that the new emphasis is on "trying to encourage schools to think ... not just in terms of academic subjects but how you organize things and deal with life skills. They are important to equip kids for the modern world and the increasingly complex decisions you have to make on a daily basis."

Emphasis is now on the practical

Or, as eminent educationist John White puts it: "We don't spend much of our time reading about the Battle of the Nile but we spend a lot of time working out what do about holidays, jobs, children, relationships. We are practical creatures and education should have something to do with preparing us for that." And he doubts whether children can fully come to understand the modern world through the eternal truths of the classics. "Issues to do with the environment are not really treated in Jane Austin or Dickens," he quips.

Mr. White, the emeritus professor of philosophy of education at the University of London's Institute of Education, says the shake-up is important because "for the first time in English history the government is taking very seriously the question of what should education aimed at."

The government has identified three aims: to produce successful learners, confident individuals, and responsible citizens. White says that only recently has the government started thinking about the second and third aims. "If you look at what education should be about, it's issues to do with preparing people to lead a fulfilling, meaningful life, and be a good citizen. Those are obvious aims," he says.

Yet the revamp comes amid deepening concern about the "dumbing down" of studies and exams in British education. Many university lecturers and professors now complain that the school-leaving exams in Britain – GSCEs for 16-year-olds and A levels for 18-year-olds – are far easier than they were 15 or 20 years ago. Every year, results improve across the board, but university professors complain that new students are so weak at the basics that they need refresher courses before they can embark on undergraduate courses.

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