Teaching children “life skills” is more important than forcing them to memorise facts such as the date of the Battle of Hastings, a teachers’ leader believes.Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, today demanded the abolition of most of the national curriculum and the associated tests, Sats, which she said were fuelling a rise in mental illness among children.
Dr Bousted admitted that traditionalists would be annoyed by any moves to reduce “rote learning” but insisted this had to be done to stop more children being turned off education at a young age.
Dr Bousted told the ATL conference in Torquay: “Our national curriculum should be far more focused on the development of life skills and ways of working than whether or not we teach the Battle of Hastings.”
Before addressing delegates, Dr Bousted insisted she was not advocating “dumbing down”.
Instead of memorising reams of facts, children in the 21st century needed to know how to find knowledge, to interpret it and assess it for bias and accuracy.
Asked whether this slimmed-down body of knowledge should indeed include the fact that William the Conqueror invaded in 1066, she replied: “I would have no argument about 1066 being included.”
The wider point, according to Dr Bousted, is that schools are currently unable to equip pupils with the skills required by employers, such as teamwork and the ability to research. She added: “We are not dumbing down. We are raising up. A skills-based curriculum is more challenging.”
Sweden has a skills-based curriculum, Dr Bousted said, and its schools are ranked above Britain’s in international league tables.
Dr Bousted also insisted that the national three Rs tests taken at ages seven, 11 and 14 should be abolished.
There was overwhelming evidence that they were an inaccurate measure of children’s abilities, forced teachers to drill pupils without instilling deep understanding and were partly to blame for poor behaviour.
She said: “Children suffer anxiety as the test looms and the rise in mental health problems cannot be divorced from their status as the most tested in the world.”
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