Ministers must stop meddling in school curriculum, say MPs

MPs demanded urgent and sweeping reforms to the school curriculum today, warning that ministerial "interference" in children's education has gone too far.

Schooling is little more than a "franchise operation" in which teachers follow a "recipe" handed down from Westminster that is subject to constant tinkering from politicians, they warned.

The influential schools select committee said the National Curriculum must be radically cut back so that it takes up less than half of teachers' time. Every parent should receive a copy of the curriculum so they can play a greater role in overseeing their child's education, they said.

The committee's report comes as ministers prepare to release final plans for reforming the primary school curriculum, which are expected to see traditional subjects such as geography and history replaced with broader areas of learning.

The MPs warned that since former Tory minister Kenneth Baker's Education Reform Act of 1988, government control over what should be taught has robbed teachers of their professional skills.

Labour MP Barry Sheerman, who chairs the committee, said: "We need to trust schools and teachers more and empower teachers to do what they do best.

"There is a regrettable tendency for governments to make continual changes to the structure and framework of the curriculum. Ministerial meddling must stop."

A succession of "piecemeal" reforms has produced an incoherent system which now needs to be reviewed across the entire 0-19 age range, the committee said.

The MPs recommended that the compulsory curriculum which all state schools must teach should be reduced to a core of essential subjects - English, maths, science and information technology. The remainder of children's education should be left to the discretion of teachers.

The Government attacked the committee's report and defended the role of ministers in setting classroom policy.

Schools Minister Sarah McCarthy-Fry said: "We reject utterly the claim that schooling is some 'franchise operation' run by ministers.

"The national curriculum has been at the heart of raising the quality of education. No one wants to go back to the days where there were no minimum national standards for what children were taught and parents had no idea what was going on in classes.

"It is right for ministers, who are accountable for the whole school system, to set the aims and overall subject requirements of the curriculum.

"It would be bizarre if an unelected agency was in sole charge of setting national policy."

She said it was "surprising and disappointing" that the committee had chosen to reject the Government's proposed reforms of the primary curriculum before they were finalised.

But the MPs said the draft plans were too complex and dismissed the proposal that children should start primary school aged four, warning that class sizes would be too big for the youngest pupils.