Schools make room for morals

LESSONS in citizenship, moral values and preparation for adult life should play an important part in a new, slimmer national curriculum from the year 2000, the Government said yesterday. David Blunkett, Secretary of State for Education, announced a top-to-bottom review of the curriculum for pupils aged three to 16.

He made it clear that he wants to give teachers more freedom to decide which subjects to teach and how to teach them. Though lessons in core subjects such as English, maths and probably science, will be prescribed in detail by the Government, schools will have a much freer hand with the other seven subjects in the present curriculum. That will enable ministers to carry forward plans to let under-achieving 14-year-olds spend most of their time in the workplace or college rather than at school.

It will also mean that schools will be able to find time for subjects such as citizenship, morals and sex and drugs education which Mr Blunkett is determined to promote. Subjects such as technology, French, history and music may be sidelined to make room for lessons which will prepare pupils for adult life.

Suggestions from Government advisory groups examining creative and cultural education may also be incorporated into the timetable.

Mr Blunkett has asked his advisers at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority to carry out the review. With teachers already under pressure from a series of new Government initiatives, he is anxious to persuade them that he does not want a root-and-branch overhaul of the curriculum.

But he is committed to looking at a different approach for the 45,000 pupils who leave school each year without any qualifications. He also wants the curriculum authority to look again at the guidelines on how under-fives should be taught.

Literacy and numeracy targets for 11-year-olds are the centrepiece of the Government's strategy for raising standards and ministers want nursery children to be well-prepared for reading and maths when they arrive in school reception classes.

The last government promised that there would be no major changes to the curriculum before the year 2000 after a major review undertaken by Sir Ron Dearing three years ago.

However, Mr Blunkett, who is determined that schools will meet literacy and numeracy targets, tore up the primary curriculum earlier this year and announced that primary schools would not have to follow.

He said yesterday: "It is essential that schools be allowed to concentrate on raising standards. They will not be able to achieve this if the review of the curriculum brings with it excessive disruption and upheaval in schools.

"We want to see a national curriculum that allowed teachers the flexibility to address key priorities during a child's school career and ensures a proper place for their preparation for adult life, including education for citizenship."

William Stubbs, the authority's chairman, said: "The review which is about to start does so against a background of great advances in technology, changes in the shape of work and in the nature of society. The task before us is to ensure that the national curriculum is relevant to the changing world."