Commenting on a report by the Lords Education for 11-16 Year Olds Committee which criticises the current education system for its overloaded curriculum, disproportionate exam burden and declining opportunities to study creative and technical subjects, Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“This report is comprehensive in assessing the problems but also in offering solutions. What this cross-party committee has found chimes with what NEU members see at the chalk face, as well as the findings of New Era Assessment and the assessment inquiry of the APPG for Schools, Learning and Assessment
"The current curriculum is not fit for the challenges and realities of our times. The way our current curriculum is assessed does not support students to demonstrate all that they’re capable of and the crude league table measures push out the arts and technical subjects. All this must change.
"The consensus for change is clear and undeniable. Any current or future government must take note of calls like this one, from across the sector, for curriculum and assessment modernisation. The future success and wellbeing of young people, and the nation, depends on it.
"However, without addressing real terms school funding cuts and tackling the intense workload of staff, which drives our serious teacher recruitment and retention challenge, the changes needed have little chance of materialising.”