ePolitix.com Stakeholders comment on the proposed reform of the secondary school curriculum in England.

The new curriculum is set to include training in life skills such as cooking, modern languages including Mandarin and Urdu and financial literacy, as well an emphasis on the basics of English, maths and science.

Also, in a bid to encourage more personalised learning, one quarter of the school day will be freed up to provide teachers with flexibility.

Party Response: Labour Party

Schools secretary Ed Balls said: "By cutting waste and duplication in the curriculum, I am giving teachers the time to concentrate on what is really vital.

"I have protected the classic elements of the curriculum that have stood the test of time such as Shakespeare, algebra, historic dates and the World Wars.

"And I want these to be taught even better - in a lively, exciting way which enthuses and motivates.

"In a rapidly changing world, we also need a school curriculum which evolves to provide teenagers with the up to date knowledge they will need to succeed.

"Every child should have a good grasp of grammar, spelling and arithmetic.

"They should also have wider skills that increasingly employers and universities demand, such as the ability to express themselves and think clearly and have a dynamic ‘can do’ attitude.

"They also need to learn skills to help them excel in a fast-changing world – for example: financial capability and learning economically useful languages like Mandarin and Urdu."

"We must help our children flourish by developing their personal skills as global citizens while maintaining a rigorous focus on traditional subject knowledge, exam results and high academic standards.

"So there’s more emphasis on developing in-depth understanding of the key ideas, skills and content of each subject discipline."

Party Response: Conservative Party

Shadow schools secretary Michael Gove said: "Greater rigour and higher standards have to be at the heart of education reform.

"That means concentrating on the basics. We need a proper focus on maths, English, modern languages and science.

"But the government have failed to ensure we have sufficient numbers of trained maths and science teachers and they still deny all pupils the freedom to choose individual science subjects."

Party Response: Liberal Democrats

David Laws, Liberal Democrat schools spokesman, said: "Schools crave more freedom and flexibility to concentrate on the basics while developing new areas of teaching, based on their own needs.

"What they are being offered is yet more spin, empty promises and meddling from ministers.

"Introducing courses in Mandarin and Urdu sounds very modern, but how many children is this ever going to actually affect?

"Before we start talking about Mandarin we should get more children learning French or Spanish.

"Changes to the teaching of financial literacy are little more than a re-announcement of existing policy.

"Young people are going to need much better financial understanding to cope with high debts from tuition fees and mortgages and to grasp our hideously complex pensions system.

"But the answer is surely to reform maths lessons so that children learn skills which actually relate to the real world."

Stakeholder Response: The NUT

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Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "The new secondary curriculum has the potential to give teachers greater freedom to be creative.

"That potential will be dissipated if the message they get is that the old curriculum is being replaced by a new narrower curriculum.

"Teachers need time in the school day to teach subjects such as financial capability and cooking.

"At the moment these subjects are only an option.

"Jamie Oliver's campaign for healthy eating would have a far greater impact if all schools had the facilities and encouragement to teach cooking.  

"The job of revising the secondary curriculum is only half done. National Curriculum testing has an undue and damaging influence on what is taught in schools.

"We now need an independent review of National Curriculum testing in secondary schools."

Stakeholder Response: The PAT

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Alison Johnston, PAT’s principal officer (education), said: "This is a progressive and forward-thinking curriculum. 

"PAT particularly welcomes its flexibility and  hopes that the scope for creativity and professional judgement it should give to teachers becomes a reality. 

"Pupils will also benefit from a curriculum that is better able to meet their individual needs as well as from a broader range of subjects and issues taught across subjects.

"One of the main challenges will be to recruit and train sufficient teachers and support staff so schools can provide subjects like Mandarin and personal finance."

Stakeholder Response: The ATL

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ATL general secretary Dr Mary Bousted said:  "The QCA has missed an opportunity to radically overhaul the national curriculum. 

"By hanging onto a subject based curriculum the QCA makes it hard for teachers to meet the differing learning styles and needs of individual children – to personalise their learning. 

"The new national curriculum also fails to move away from the current over-emphasis on academic subjects and downplaying of vocational skills.

"Because the government has still not accepted the need to abandon the discredited SATs those who teach English, maths and science – the core subjects - will not get the same flexibility over the detail of what they teach.

"What we really need is a national curriculum which specifies the wide range of skills pupils need to lead successful lives, and leaves the detail of the exact content to be decided by their school and teachers.

Stakeholder Response: The FLA

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Stephen Sklaroff, director general designate, said: "Education is key to ensuring tomorrow’s consumers understand their financial commitments.

"We urge the government to ensure that credit and debt management is included in the new curriculum."

Stakeholder Response: AQA

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Dr Mike Cresswell, AQA Director General said: "AQA welcomes the Government’s stated commitment to improving standards of literacy and numeracy and to Citizenship Education.

"Citizenship is a crucial part of the modern curriculum and its study helps create the well-rounded citizens of tomorrow."