Nick Clegg to call for an end to the “one size fits all” approach to education

Nick Clegg is making a major speech on education today, and it’s (already) getting some heavy coverage in the media:

Schools should be less constrained by the National Curriculum, Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, says on Monday.

In a speech to the Centre Forum think-tank at the Microsoft headquarters in London, he will call for an end to the “one size fits all” approach to education.

He will call for the establishment of an education standards authority to tackle accusations of dumbing down by ensuring exams retain their gold standard.

Mr Clegg will also argue that the number of civil servants at the Department for Children, Families and Schools should be cut in half, and power devolved to local level. [Daily Telegraph]

and

National curriculum tests taken by 1.2 million pupils every summer should be scrapped, the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg will say today.

He will tell a seminar hosted by the think-tank CentreForum that his party proposes abolishing tests for seven and 14-year-olds: “The regime of testing and targets is based more on the need to evaluate schools rather than the personal needs of pupils.” England’s testing regime is, he says, “as centralised and de-personalised as any in the developed world”.

Mr Clegg is the first party leader to call for the abolition of national curriculum tests on such a large scale – a move which will give the Liberal Democrats’ next election manifesto a distinctive flavour on education.

His pledge will be welcomed by heads and teachers’ leaders who have been arguing that the current testing regime is destroying pupils’ interest in education, with schools teaching to the tests and abandoning a broader range of subjects to ensure they perform well in government league tables. [The Independent]