Douglas Carswell's Blog

The national curriculum should be optional

Why do we have a national curriculum?

To maintain basic standards, perhaps? Not so.  Almost thirty years of top down, curriculum learning has done little to narrow the yawning gap between different schools.

Perhaps the purpose of the curriculum is to ensure every British child has common cultural reference points?   I'd argue we had plenty of common cultural reference points back in the days before there was a national curriculum.  Common identity shoud come from below.

Maybe we need a national curriculum to ensure that children can move schools? If so, then how do Canadian kids cope in a country with a high degree of labour mobility and no national curriculum?

Rather like the arguments for micro chipping dogs or imposing minimum alcohol prices, the case for a national curriculum falls apart on close inspection.  As I suggest in my Telegraph blog, the national curriculum should be optional.

Allister Heath has written a brilliant piece showing how the digital revolution might transform education for the better. Having a cumbersome national curriculum will only slow down the pace of innovation. 

Back to all posts