Children are “targets” and “outputs,” English reports say

Primary school education in England has been damaged by “prescriptive state nationalization,” which has taken all the fun out of children’s learning, the biggest review of primary education in 40 years has concluded. A mixture of “moral panic,” “policy hysteria,” and “fad theory” has had a devastating effect on primary schools in England, according to the latest reports of the Cambridge University-led Primary Review.

The three reports published today (Friday, April 18, 2008) examining teacher professionalism, training and leadership followed 22 earlier reports that have delivered a damning indictment of the government’s record on primary education.

Children had been reduced to the status of “targets and outputs” in a school system ruled by political “whim,” researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University said. Read the article in The Independent online.