Pupils in UK 'not stimulated' by curriculum

Children are leaving school without a good knowledge of some subjects because of a focus on social issues, a leading headmistress warned yesterday.

The curriculum and examinations are increasingly geared towards making subjects "relevant" to youngsters, according to Bernice McCabe, headmistress of North London Collegiate School and co-director of the Prince's Teaching Institute.

But this approach does not "stimulate" youngsters, and has a knock-on effect for future generations.

She said: "The Teaching Institute has been working with teachers and headteachers since 2002. What they have said to us is that their view is that schools are places where children are taught things they don't know, where children are educated to love their subjects.

"This has changed over the years, because whenever there's a problem in society, or something that understandably needs to be addressed, like healthy eating or safeguarding children, then it's the school curriculum that has to take over and spend time on it.

"It's the place where these things have to be covered."

Arguing that there needs to be time for subject learning, Ms McCabe said: "Subjects are becoming increasingly linked into exam specifications, which are linked into social aspects rather than a subject for its own sake."

A foreign language student at A level may study poverty in inner cities rather than literature.

And English Literature is more likely to be focused on a particular genre rather than the subject as a whole, she suggested.

She added: "I think that there's a sort of functionalism in schools that exists when they become more concerned with social issues rather than with the educational agenda."

Ms McCabe said that education should be about leading children to knowledge they don't already have.

"You don't teach good use of English by teaching text language," Ms McCabe said.