Industry News
Education 'too focused on economic goals'
Posted on 14th February 2008
Britain's state schools have become too focused on the needs of business, a new report has claimed.
Independent schools are free of the restrictions of government targets and headteachers are able to select a curriculum and combination of non-academic activities they believe to be in the best interests of pupils.
However, a study conducted by Oxford University's Professor Richard Pring for the Nuffield Review found the situation is very different in state schools.
It concluded that the influence of business in state schools is growing and that the government now even uses management jargon when referring to the education system.
This change has coincided with the introduction of private companies as sponsors of city academies and the report suggests the facts are not unconnected.
Professor Pring said he is concerned that changes to the curriculum for 14 to 19-year-olds are designed solely to help meet the country's economic goals by providing a skilled workforce, rather than with broader educational aims in mind.
"We need to give young learners far more than skills for employment alone, even if such skills are key to the country's economy," he added.
The report added that the central aims of the education system should be to equip young people to think "intelligently and critically" about the world around them and to prepare them for "responsible and capable citizenship".