5/1/2008 8:44:00 AM
Estelle Morris; The Guardian 1 May
Diplomas could finally deliver a unified system, academic and vocational, tailored to pupils' needs. The nation's 14-year-olds are about to decide which subjects and exams they will take over the next two years. In the era of the national curriculum it's the first time they've had a real choice, and making the wrong decision can limit their future options. What makes this group different is that it is the first to have the choice of signing up for the government's new diplomas. A minister recently described diplomas as the biggest education innovation in the world. That may be a bit over the top, but the point is well made. When they are fully established, GCSEs and A-levels could be a thing of the past; as out of date to teenagers as the school certificate was to their parents. The talk will be of foundation learning tiers and higher diplomas, principal learning and special projects. It would be easy to dismiss diplomas as just one more attempt to solve age-old weaknesses of our secondary school curriculum: vocational subjects that have low status; qualifications that no one understands; an academic curriculum that specialises too early; poorly motivated teenagers; and our continuing failure to value anything that could be termed practical. In the past 30 years much money, time and effort have been wasted in this area. So what chance do diplomas have of bucking the trend? The government is investing huge amounts of our cash, schools' time and its political reputation in trying to make sure they do. The government is right to claim that the proposals have more chance of succeeding than any of their predecessors. The prime minister's emphasis on skills and creativity provides the political and economic context for diplomas; he "talks up" vocational skills in a way that hasn't always been done. And the support of groups who have already bought in to diplomas is unprecedented: employers are helping to develop the curriculum; universities are showing willing to accept them as entry qualifications; and the legal framework is in place so pupils can learn at college and the workplace as well as school. Guardian
Curriculum / Quality Assurance | Secondary
E-mail a friend |
del.icio.us| Bookmark|
Permalink |
Comments
(0) |
Post RSS