Industry News
League tables creating 'exam junkies'
Posted on 26th November 2007
A leading authority on independent schools will make a speech tonight attacking league tables for changing children into "exam junkies".
Dr Anthony Seldon, head of Wellington College, is to give the annual Haberdashers' Aske's speech on education and plans to say over-examination stifles independent learning and creativity.
Children have lost interest in activities which do not involve testing, he believes.
League tables are not delivering better teaching or encouraging schools, but rather, "corrupting education", he will claim.
"Good schools which take children of lesser academic ability are marginalised and characterised as second rate, while schools that take only bright children are lauded as top schools," Dr Seldon will argue.
There is no measure of whether the schools are creating "well-rounded" young people, he will continue.
Earlier this month, research from the Primary Review reported that primary school children feel pressured by exams and would like more control over what they are studying.
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