'Education policies harmful to children', says Poet Laureate
POET Laureate Carol Ann Duffy has joined leading academics and children's authors in condemning the Government's education policies as being harmful to children.
Nearly 200 people, also including Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman, said they are "gravely concerned" by new policies in state education and have called for the reforms, affecting the national curriculum and exams, to be halted.
Their letter, published in The Times today, comes as Education Secretary Michael Gove prepares to address the Conservative Party conference in Manchester.
A total of 198 people signed the letter, including academics from Oxford, Bristol and Newcastle Universities, as well as writers Melvin Burgess and Michael Rosen.
They write: "Competition between children through incessant testing and labelling results is a public sense of failure for the vast majority.
"The drive towards ever-higher attainment in national tests leads inevitably to teaching to the test, which narrows the range of learning experiences. Harmful stress is put on young people, their parents and their teachers.
"These damaging developments must stop. If they go ahead there will be devastating consequences for children's mental health, for future opportunities and, most importantly, for the quality of childhood itself."
They describe demands on teachers as being like a "straitjacket" that will "destroy the educational richness that should be children's birthright".
Instead of pressing ahead with reforms, the group wants the Government to set up a commission to examine alternatives.
They conclude: "It is time to seek a consensus of parents, teachers, academics, children's authors, business leaders, politicians of all parties and other public figures to decide on what we want for our children and how best to achieve it.
"Arrest change and seek consensus on the future of education."