Baccalaureates 'would create educational Berlin Wall'

Wednesday, 23 March 2011 12:01 AM

By Hannah Brenton

The English Baccalaureate will create a narrow curriculum that could disengage the lowest achievers, headteachers have warned.

Under proposals set out by education secretary Michael Gove, students will receive the EBacc when they attain A* to C grades at GCSE in english, maths, a foreign language, science and a humanities subject.

But speaking before the Commons education committee, four headteachers said the EBacc would restrict student choice and risked increasing the number of young people who become Neets (not in education, employment or training).

Andrew Chubb, principal of Archbishop Sentamu Academy, offered the heaviest criticism, arguing the EBacc risked creating an "educational Berlin Wall".

"For students, there are no winners that I can see," he said. "Everyone loses to a greater or lesser extent."

The principal of the academy school said the lowest-achievers risked being "switched off" by being pushed into subjects that did not suit them to aid schools' performances in league tables.

"The very sort of practices that the secretary of state rightly criticised in the white paper about performance table gaining are already happening right before our eyes and before the ink's dried on the paper - and I don't think that's good for student choice either," he said.

The EBacc's choice of core subjects has also come under criticism for excluding religious education, music and art.

"It's fallacious to say any one subject contains more inherent cognitive challenge than any other," Mr Chubb said.

Hugh O'Neill, headteacher of St Benedict's Catholic School, said the EBacc would create an elite at GCSE.

"This is a nice way to create an elite of passes at GCSE, but is that what we need?" he queried.

"I'm unhappy that having a qualification that we know 60-70% of people won't pass is the way forward.

"If you want a measure to make sure that more than half the population won't get it, then it's excellent."

Caroline Jordan, headmistress of the fee-paying St George's School, said she was worried about the choice of subjects under the EBacc and its effect on the lowest achievers.
"The white paper talked about unnecessary proscription, but suddenly we're being told what to teach," she said.

But Matt Brady, assistant headteacher at the Tile Hill Wood School and Language College offered the most support for the qualification, arguing it would rectify a decline in the teaching of academic subjects, like languages, in schools and make English pupils more competitive on an international stage.

"In principle I agree with the idea behind the EBacc, but I'm open to the way it's implemented," he said.

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