'Pupils need to be taught to think'

12 April 2012

Schools should teach children the key skills they need for life - like walking and thinking - not set subjects such as history or French, teachers' leaders have said.

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers called for the National Curriculum to be torn up and the testing system abolished.

The union said teachers in local schools should be able to adapt lessons to fit a new framework focusing on important skills for life, rather than academic subjects.

Martin Johnson, ATL's acting deputy general secretary, said prioritising academic education over other types of knowledge was "totalitarian".

"A curriculum is a selection from the total sum of knowledge, which is exploding," he said.

"For the state to suggest that some knowledge should be privileged over other knowledge is a bit totalitarian in a 21st century environment. We are arguing that knowledge which traditionally has high status should not be privileged over other kinds of knowledge.

"We are not suggesting that some nutty teacher gets up one morning and decides on a curriculum which would be entirely out of kilter with what their colleagues, what most of the pupils in their school or what the community would desire.

"There has to be accountability. There has to be some collective decision making."

He said he could not imagine a school deciding not to teach the core skills associated with a subject like history - such as weighing up evidence from different sources.

But he defended the union's call for a more "comprehensive and universal" curriculum including physical co-ordination, personal skills, thinking skills and ethics.

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