The government has this morning published a call for evidence for its wide-ranging curriculum and assessment review.
We already have an explainer of how the review will work (you can read that here), so the below is more specific to the call for evidence.
It’s an 8-week consultation
The call for evidence opens today and runs until November 22. That’s eight weeks to have your say. You can fill in the consultation here.
The review has “deliberately kept questions as open as possible, and welcome responses from all those interested: young people and their parents, teachers, lecturers, education leaders, subject experts, researchers, employers and others”.
Reports next year, but changes could take longer
An interim report is expected in “early 2025”, setting out key findings and areas for further work, with a final report and recommendations due in Autumn 2025.
Review chair Becky Francis suggested it could be a mixed bag. Some more straight forward changes, for instance, could be put forward in the first report, and brought in the following year. Government has committed to give schools a year notice for any major curriculum and assessment reforms.
However, she did say any bigger and more complicated reforms could require further reviews or consultations, and may not even happen in this parliament, which ends in 2029.
Focus on improving curriculum… and workload
The review’s call for evidence is broken down into nine sections, with each framed around the strengths of the current system and “the areas that most need change”
Key for teachers and college leaders struggling with retention is a secondary aim of ensuring the curriculum is deliverable “with manageable and sustainable workloads for education staff”.
Sections relevant to the FE sector include social justice, maths and English foundations, technical awards alongside GCSEs, assessment and accountability, and 16 to 19 qualification pathways.
What the review is not
The review is not connected to the short, focused review into level 3 reforms which involves defunding BTECs and other applied general qualifications.
However, it will “work closely with the internal review” ahead of its outcomes being published by the end of 2024.
In a statement in July, Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said the curriculum and assessment review will “reflect” the level 3 review’s decisions, as well as recommending changes to 16 to 19 education “where necessary”.
Other issues outside of its scope are apprenticeships and associated functional skills requirements, traineeships and adult skills.
Looking hard at post-16
Francis’ review will consider young people’s education experiences up to the age of 19 and will be “vigorously evidence and data informed”.
The panel asks whether the range of programmes up to level 3 meets the “needs and aspirations of learners” and whether changes could be made to A-levels, T Levels or other applied or vocational qualifications.
She told FE Week: “We are definitely wanting to look hard at post-16 and particularly within that, vocational qualifications, where we know that there have been long standing debates, issues and problems.”
English and maths resits
The panel is “keen to understand” what changes would improve English and maths performance, noting that less than 30 per cent of those you do not achieve level 2 at key stage 4 go on to reach grade 4 them by 19 years old.
FE Week understands that the forced GCSE resits policy is in the remit of the review.
Social justice
The panel’s call for evidence has a focus on how the education system can “improve outcomes” for young people, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
While Francis is positive about the English education system’s “commitment to excellence” over recent decades, she hopes to help the country “confront the divides that perpetuate the class ceiling”.
She said: “The reality is that we continue to fail the third of our young people who do not achieve five GCSEs at grade 4 or above age 16, a disproportionate number of whom are from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.”
Economically disadvantaged young people are 24 per cent less likely to achieve a level 2 in both English and maths by 19, the report finds.
In addition, just under one in five young education leavers in England do not enter sustained education, apprenticeship or employment within a year of their 16 to 19 studies.
“Every pupil, across all key stages, should have an experience of education that is both stimulating and enjoyable and that provides them with the foundation and motivation to pursue lifelong learning,” the review states.
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