National curriculum to see major overhaul
Changes in the national curriculum are facing divided comments as plans to launch it in 2013 are put in place.
The curriculum, which schools adhere to in lesson plans and teaching schedules and dates back to 1988, is to see an overhaul in the next two years and the "core knowledge" of teaching for five to 16 year olds will be altered.
Decisions on the fifth review of the prescribed core learning document have been debated in government and in education and are predicted to affect the way in which schoolchildren are taught and assessed, the Guardian reports.
Tim Oates, director of research at the exams group Cambridge Assessment, who is leading the review, said the levels system, though set up with good intentions, had become "defective". He added that the numerical levels did not communicate meaningful information – to pupils or parents – about what children actually understand.
Particular levels that children should reach in education are outlined in the current curriculum but it does not specify an age. Reforms propose to implement an age-to-ability guideline to help track a child through school.
The national curriculum provides statutory programmes of study and attainment targets for England's key stages 1 to 4, which include primary and secondary curriculums.
