The Accord Coalition has made a formal submission in response to Government’s education white paper ‘The Importance of Teaching’, which was published on November 24th. The paper sets out the Government’s thinking behind and plans for its forthcoming education Bill, including changes to the National Curriculum and giving schools greater autonomy and freedom from government interference.
Chair of the Accord Coalition, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain said ‘we welcome that the Government has made its agenda of education reform such a high priority and is investing so much energy into developing its proposals.
‘However, we are very concerned that the paper does not highlight the existing weakness in the current provision of Religious Education or problems associated with compulsory Collective Worship, nor indicates that the Government intends to look as these two areas. We are also saddened that the Government does not intend to add Sex and Relationship Education to the National Curriculum, when such a measure would improve children’s future health and welling.
‘We believe it is vital that Ofsted’s current remit to inspect how effectively schools promote community cohesion is broadened, as many schools only superficially adhere to their legal duty to do this, while we are deeply concerned that the scope and frequency of Ofsted inspections are to be downgraded.
‘As the Government gives schools greater freedom, it follows that they should also ensure greater rather than less monitoring to make certain that those new freedoms are not abused. We are concerned that in its desire to give schools greater freedom, such as over their pupil admissions and the curriculum, the Government risks unwittingly empowering those who would mitigate against social cohesion in our schools.’
