Our narrow curriculum is failing our kids - it's time to go Broad and Bold
As Tony Blair made clear in his famous speech in 2001, education was the top priority for the last Labour government. Under New Labour, funding per pupil doubled. 3,700 schools were rebuilt or refurbished. Over 42,400 more teachers and 123,000 more teaching assistants were recruited. In 1997, most schools had less than 30% of their pupils achieving five good GCSEs, including English and Maths. By 2010, only a few hundred schools failed this benchmark.
27 years after New Labour’s first election victory, the education system faces very different challenges. In 1997, the internet was in its infancy, with just 100,000 websites in existence. Now, there are over a billion. Facebook did not exist, and would not for another seven years. The iPhone would not come out for another ten. The late 1990s were a time of strong economic growth and relative geo-political certainty. Today, technology is changing the world of work at a rapid pace. Economic growth is anemic and our productivity lags behind comparative countries. Many of the old certainties about global politics have been shattered. As a result, the world that school-leavers enter has changed dramatically since Labour last took power.
In the past 14 years of Conservative government, the focus of the education system has been on the narrow task of getting children through exams, with little thought as to whether it will adequately prepare children to navigate this transformed world. By contrast, Labour has recognised that bold reforms to the curriculum will be vital to ensuring that children leaving school are able to thrive in this changed new era. These reforms are at the heart of its mission to “break down the barriers to opportunity”. At Labour Together, we carried out polling between the 1st and 4th of December 2023, asking about attitudes to education and the curriculum. We found that the public is on Labour’s side.
Firstly, we found dissatisfaction with the state of schools today. Twice as many Britons think their local schools are getting worse (39%) than think they are getting better (19%). This is also true for parents, of whom 41% believe the system in their area is getting worse.
There are things that parents, in particular, think schools do well. About seven in ten (68%) of parents think schools do a good job of helping children gain subject knowledge. Two thirds (66%) think they are good at helping students get the best grades.
But there are also areas where voters feel they are not doing well, and they are the broader aspects of a good education. Half (50%) of Britons think that schools are not preparing students for the world of work. 50% think that schools are failing to prepare children for life in general.
When asked what the priorities for our education system should be, voters (and particularly parents) prioritise life skills. They want students to develop communication, teamwork and problem-solving skills. They want to foster self-confidence and prepare students for work. Those who voted Conservative in 2019 were particularly likely to think preparation for work was important, a top priority for nearly half (45%) of them. Comparatively, helping students get the best grades and gain subject knowledge sat relatively far down in their priorities.
On a similar theme, the public thinks schools mostly apportion the right amount of time to traditional subjects - but not nearly enough time to “life skills”.
They also want the subjects taught in schools to be more closely tied to the real world, prioritising this over maximising the amount of knowledge gained by pupils.
In history, for instance, they want people to be taught history about their local area (this was particularly true in areas outside London).
And, a plurality believe verbal skills should be prioritised over writing skills (43%).
Finally, they want a broader approach to assessment to match a broader curriculum. This means not just relying on timed exams, but instead allowing pupils to demonstrate a wider range of skills, including verbal communication and team-work.
These findings echo the recommendations made in a new paper, commissioned by Labour Together, also published today. Broad and Bold: Building a Modern Curriculum was written by independent education policy expert and former headteacher Oli de Botton. The report highlights areas of today’s curriculum that hold British children back, not least the “premature specialisation” that our current system forces on young people. Oli de Botton’s report calls for:
A curriculum grounded in the basics with early, focused support at pre-school and primary; and relevant English and Maths studied longer
A curriculum that broadens experiences for young people, by making space for enriching activities like performance, ‘maths circles’ and independent research
More focus on work-readiness by developing skills like speaking within and between subjects - and by reinventing work experience.
Accepting that schools must navigate difficult contemporary issues and that the curriculum can help. The subject of history is crucial. Thinking like a historian, with a critical eye on sources, is a key way of navigating the modern world. Local histories are a particularly fruitful place to start thinking about social issues.
A curriculum that is “broad and bold” strikes at one of the great injustices within our education system. Wealthier families tend to provide their children with experiences and learning that sit outside the standard curriculum. The “soft-skills” they learn as a result leave them better prepared for thriving in our rapidly changing and uncertain world. As the Institute for Fiscal Studies found, those from better-off families receive higher financial rewards from completing a degree than their peers from disadvantaged backgrounds, even holding constant attainment during school and at university as well as subject and institution. Where a child is born and how wealthy their parents are, too often determines their future prospects. With a curriculum that is broad and bold, Labour could break this link.
Tony Blair’s “Education, education, education” speech, delivered in May 2001 made clear the priority of his government. From those words followed profound reform to our education system, which transformed the fortunes of a generation of children. Should Labour win the next election, that opportunity will arise again. The working world that the current generation of schoolchildren will enter will be very different indeed. To prepare them for it, the education they receive must be broad and bold.
Methodology and data tables
The results above are drawn from two surveys carried out by Labour Together online, both between the 1st and the 4th of December 2023. Identical surveys were fielded to a sample of 1055 parents of children aged 18 or under in Britain, and 1087 people in Britain. Both surveys were weighted to be nationally and politically representative of parents in Britain and all Britons respectively. Data tables for both surveys are available here (parents) and here (all Britons).
For more information about Labour Together’s polling methodology, please click here
Full data tables for the results included above are available here.
