Clegg calls for curriculum test rethink

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has called for an end to the "one-size-fits-all" approach to education.

Speaking to the CentreForum think-tank on Monday, Clegg said that schools should be less constrained by the national curriculum and proposed abolishing tests for seven and 14-year-olds.

Clegg argued that national curriculum tests should be replaced with assessments at the age of five so that a pupil's attainment level can be judged in reading, writing and maths.

He also stressed that tests for 11-year-olds should remain in place, in order to act as a suitable gauge of pupil ability prior to going to secondary school.

"The regime of testing and targets is based more on the need to evaluate schools rather than the personal needs of pupils," he said.

After contrasting the 635-page national curriculum in England to the Swedish equivalent that stands at just 21 pages, Clegg proposed that: "England's curriculum should be less prescriptive, and more flexible where flexibility is needed.

"Other countries manage with a national curriculum which can often be summarised in just a few pages, while England has a curriculum which seeks to dictate to an extraordinary degree.

"As if that wasn't enough, ministers constantly find new subjects to add into the compulsory curriculum, cooking, culture and so on, instead of letting pupils and schools decide."

Clegg also claimed that academies provide an effective blueprint for how schools can "enjoy freedom from the national curriculum for non-core subjects".