Industry News
Boarding Schools Association calls for abolition of league tables
Posted on 28th April 2008
The Boarding Schools Association has called for the abolition of school league tables.
Chairman of the association Geoffrey Boult called league tables "a tyranny" which had "a toxic effect on schools", the Telegraph reported.
His comments follow recent reports that some schools were encouraging under-performing pupils against taking exams in order to keep the proportion of high grades up.
Today (April 28th) the National Union of Teachers (NUT) backed the claims.
Acting general secretary Christine Blower said: ?We have an absurd situation where inspection judgements and school league rankings often contradict each other."
"We need a new direction which restores fairness in judgement on schools," she added.
Ms Blower called on the government to commission an independent review of the mechanisms that make schools accountable. She said that no other country employed league tables and that the government was 'isolated' in its determination to keep them.
She went on to say that there was evidence that the narrowing curriculum undermined children's learning.
Today head teachers at Eton college and St Paul's school said they would not be submitting exam results to the Independent Schools Council.