madsen-pirie-in-the-sunday-times
Madsen has a piece in the Think Tank slot of the Sunday Times, proposing the abolition of the National Curriculum. He points out that the Curriculum was originally intended to ensure that state schools gave a decent grounding in the basics, but grew unwieldy as every interest group sought to include its own pet subjects taught in the way it decreed.
It would be better, says Madsen, to give schools the freedom to decide what to teach and to leave teachers to exercise their skill and experience in deciding how to teach it. They are probably better at it than civil servants and politicians. External exam boards will set syllabi, and schools will teach them to help their children pass. The performance of schools will attract or deter parents, and choice will improve quality far more surely than imposed uniform standards can achieve.
The full text of his article is available here (£).
