ACfE is epitome of everything wrong with education

24th April 2009, 1:00am

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ACfE is epitome of everything wrong with education

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/acfe-epitome-everything-wrong-education

As a counterpoint to Brian Boyd’s defence of A Curriculum for Excellence in last week’s TESS, may I refer your readers to Chris Woodhead’s excellent attack on it in the following Sunday’s edition of The Sunday Times.

Far from being exactly what Scottish education needs, as Professor Boyd and his ilk seem to suggest, ACfE is another great waste of public money and teachers’, pupils’ and parents’ time.

Professor Boyd et al have not been practising teachers for many years; instead, they resort to “initiatives” such as this one to justify their own jobs. “Learning how to learn” is not an essential skill, children are in school to learn the knowledge that their teachers can impart. Sadly, it seems that this privilege will be denied the ACfE generation (until, presumably, 2018, when a working group is established to overhaul the education system and put “knowledge” back at the heart of the curriculum).

A Curriculum for Excellence - from the ridiculousness of its name through every tedious, time-wasting clause - is a disaster. Tragically, it is the epitome of everything that is wrong in education today, where such polices (see also social justice, Better Behaviour Better Learning, and so on) are spearheaded by those who have chosen to escape classroom life for a job writing educational missives.

Enjoy your retirement, Brian. Now please leave us alone.

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