WHAT IS PRIMARY EDUCATION FOR? FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS FROM THE PRIMARY REVIEW’S LATEST RESEARCH REPORTS

18 JANUARY 2008

Commenting on the Primary Review reports Steve Sinnott, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Europe’s largest teaching union said:

“The studies show the continuing and deep confusion about what primary education is for.  They also show the damage caused by policy obsessions with creating choice and a diversity of different types of schools.

“The Primary Review finally puts the nail in the coffin of arguments for choice and competition.  The aims of achieving equity outlined in the recent Children’s Plan are fundamentally at odds with the principles of choice and competition set out in the recent Education Acts. They exacerbate educational segregation and inequality between children from disadvantaged and advantaged families.

“As the Primary Review shows national policies on primary education are a curious mixture of rigidity alongside an emphasis on children’s enjoyment of learning.  It is vital that this uneasy mix is solved once and for all and that the emphasis in the Children’s Plan, highlighting the importance of enjoyment of learning and play, becomes the dominant approach to primary education.”