Dunford, a leading educationist, has just posted his debut blog entry on his brand new website.In it he discusses the efforts of Whole Education in partnership with an array of other education organisations to pioneer a 'Better Bacclaureate' or 'Better Bacc' for short.
Others involved in this consortium include the Curriculum Foundation (led by Mick Waters formerly of QCA), ASCL and the Independent Academies Association as well as Dr. Andrew Chubb on behalf of the Archbishop Sentamu Academy in Hull who helped kickstart the movement.
In particular Dr. Dunford is concerned that despite Michael Gove having made the promise of greater curriculum freedom for all schools and academies repeatedly before and after the General Election this message "has been swamped by the fears of the E-Bacc and how it might be used in future. Some year 11 students are even being put through history GCSE after school in order to give them a chance of an E-Bacc certificate. Some freedom!"
Brian Lightman, who succeeded Dr. Dunford as General Secretary of ASCL last year, has also been pro-active in calling for a broader, more rounded baccalaureate, and has expressed concern about the potential for a narrowing of focus that fails to encompass practical learning, technology and basic employability skills.
It will be interesting to see how responsive the Government are to this new movement to develop an alternative, broader Baccalauerate.
It's also very interesting to note that Lord Baker, the Chair of Edge and former Education Secretary during the Thatcher era, is working with Lord Adonis, Sir Mike Tomlinson and a number of leading University Technical College sponsors (employers, universities and FE Colleges) to develop a Technical Baccalaureate or 'Tech Bacc' proposal that DfE could potentially operate alongside the E-Bacc in future.
As I reported in Leader Magazine in December 2010, the proposed University Technical Colleges will of course be offering a very focused diet of curriculum provision in their specialist areas that focus on helping their students develop advanced practical competences and technical understanding, and their results would not register on any future English Baccalaureate driven performance league table.
Although Lord Baker points out that students between 14-16 will study languages such as German and MChinese and that some UTCs will build history into their curriculum (the history of science, invention and economic development), some parents may be concerned that their children may be disadvantaged through not having the option to achieve an E-Bacc style award.
The proposed Tech Bacc would thus serve as an overarching 'wrapper' for a blended route of academic and practical learning between 14-16 and 16-19.
1 comment:
The last thing we need is the English Baccalaureate - it's not about raising standards, it's about shutting off avenues.
I wish the Better Bacc people all the best in developing their model, but I doubt the Government will listen.
We need academic and vocational learning not an apartheid in our schools!
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