MPs in slimmed-down curriculum call

Ministers have too much control over the national curriculum, effectively turning schooling into a "franchise operation", MPs have warned.

Teachers have been "de-skilled" and "de-motivated" by high levels of prescription and guidance handed down from central government.

A report by the Commons schools select committee called for the national curriculum to be "slimmed-down" and for a cap to be put on the amount of teaching time it accounts for.

At the moment, the curriculum is too crowded, with different groups lobbying to ensure their subject is included, it said. The report adds that "the bloated nature of the current National Curriculum also stems from excessive ad hoc changes, which have often stemmed from the particular priorities of successive ministers."

The report said that all schools should only be required to follow a national curriculum in the core subjects of English, maths, science and information and communication technology (ICT) - a freedom currently only extended to the Government's flagship academies.

The main purpose of a national curriculum is to set out the minimum entitlement for every child, the cross-party group of MPs said. Therefore as little as possible should be prescribed, and decisions on anything that is mandatory should be taken as close to school level as possible, rather than by central government.

The MPs said they were "concerned" that different types of schools enjoy varying levels of freedom in teaching the curriculum. In addition it suggests "the extent of top-down prescription and direction has reduced teacher morale and commitment and de-skilled the profession."

The report also raises concerns that there is no continuity between the primary and secondary curriculums and that instead there is a "piecemeal approach." And it says that the proposed changes to the primary curriculum to create "programmes of study", laid out in Sir Jim Rose's primary review are "unnecessarily complex."

Schools Minister Sarah McCarthy-Fry said: "It is down to teachers to use their professional judgments in designing their own lessons around the core, statutory curriculum. The perverse recommendation that Whitehall should dictate how much time every teacher should spend on the National Curriculum flies in the face of the committee's own call for less prescription."