Sir: 'Serious root-and-branch, knock-it-all- d own - and-start-again reform is best con- fined
to the imaginations of observers, not the nasty world that doers inhabit. For the barbed and uncomfortable reality of strug- gling to run things . . . is a world away from • the cosiness of the seminar-room and the luncheon table of some necessarily ephemeral think-tank.'
It's almost uncanny. John Patten's ani- madversions on constitutional reform pre- cisely express the feelings of the nation's English teachers about his own attempts at reshaping and testing the curriculum for 14-year-olds. His department has issued regulations that are based on rigidly dog- matic principles, yet are for ever changing. All over the country, English departments are having to scrap carefully considered schemes of work to cope with the publica- tIOn in mid-year of set texts for examina- tions in June. Teachers were asked to divide pupils into three groups, entering them for different exams according to their level of ability — and were then told that the rules governing the grades achievable y each group would be altered. In compar- ison with the generally very well-run GCSE and A-level examinations, the thing is an administrative shambles.
Mr Patten writes rather well about con- stitutional reform. He says he distrusts Panaceas — can't he see that the huge pill he's ramming down the throats of the nation's teachers is doing much more harm than good?
George Simmers
1 Easthill Close, Brackley, Northamptonshire
Previous page
