UK Education Review Calls for Fewer Exams, More Life Skills in Schools

A review of England's curriculum recommends reducing the emphasis on exams and the amount of content and focusing more on life skills and "enrichment."

The review, led by Professor Becky Francis, recommends that students spend less time in exam halls and more time on "all the wonderful things that happen in schools," such as sports, games, and work experience.

The review also urged the government to cut back on policies introduced by former Tory education secretary Michael Gove, including a radical overhaul of the controversial grammar tests in primary schools.

The review aims to reduce the total length of GCSE exams taken by students by approximately three hours, as well as reduce the course content of several GCSE subjects, including history and science.

Francis said, "Some of the other valuable and important functions of schools, such as enrichment, life skills, and fostering young people's self-confidence, are currently under increasing pressure due to the excessive amount of content in the national curriculum."

The government has indicated it will accept several of the review's recommendations, including the widely publicized decision to abolish the Bachelor of English (EBACC) degree introduced by Gove, which exposes students to more academic subjects at GCSE, as well as amending the Grade 6 SATs to reduce testing of prepositional adverbs and similar grammatical concepts.

But school leaders are unsure about how many of the review's proposals, commissioned by Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, will be accepted, as some appear to contradict recent government commitments.

Although the review recommended that Year 8 pupils should take diagnostic tests in maths and English, Phillipson announced a new national reading test for Year 8 pupils last month.

Pepe D'Isio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "We are perplexed that the government has announced plans for a compulsory reading test for Year 8 before the results of the curriculum and assessment review are available."

The Department for Education's initial response appeared contradictory in other areas, including a proposal to change the accountability measure called Progress 8, which measures changes in achievement between Key Stage 2 standardized tests (SATs) and GCSEs. The review recommended retaining Progress 8, but the DfE stated that it wanted to improve the measure.

According to a government spokesperson, these changes will "encourage students to study a wider range of GCSE subjects, including English, maths, and science, as well as arts, humanities, and languages."

Phillipson said: "It's been over a decade since the national curriculum was last updated, and it's more important than ever that young people are prepared to face today's challenges so they can take advantage of life's exciting opportunities."

The DfE also used the feedback to announce new proposals, including a "new set of enrichment criteria" that will require schools to offer "access to civic engagement, arts and culture, nature and adventure, sport, and life skills," which will be inspected by Ofsted and advertised to parents through a new "School Profile" information service.

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