Posted by Brian Lightman, Head of ASCL, told his recent conference of school leaders that education needed an independent, non-political body which could review the curriculum for England’s schools every five years, with the aim of creating more stability and less reliance on the fluctuating interventions of individual education secretaries.
Nicky Morgan rejected that on the grounds of political accountability. She asserted that control of what is taught in schools in England needed to remain with politicians. “Parents should be able to hold us to account for the decisions that we make,” she said.
Mr Lightman pointed out that that the framework used by Ofsted to inspect schools had been changed five times since 2012. And that was before all the changes to the changes to the National Curriculum and the exam system were taken into account.
Ms Morgan said decisions about the national curriculum needed to be made by “democratically-elected representatives” who could be held to account in elections. She did not apparently see any connection between this claim and the fact that academies and free schools are not properly accountable to anyone under the current arrangements. You can read more about this story on the BBC website here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-32000083
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