National Education Union comments on EPI report on Primary Education

Commenting on the Education Policy Institute report English Education: World Class in Primary?, Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:

“This is a disappointing report, which offers little that can help the real work of school improvement.

“Primary schools in England are hampered by a narrow and test-driven curriculum, which overworks teachers and damages the classroom experience of children.

“The effect of the EPI report will be to make this situation worse.  It will ramp up the pressure for higher test scores in mathematics, and in the process narrow further the curriculum. The consequences for primary education of this pressure are not imagined or discussed.

“Educational professionals, like parents, want to see changes to primary education that will raise the all-round quality of children's learning.  This report will not help meet those aspirations.”