Commenting on a National Foundation for Educational Research report looking at the socio-emotional skills of young people aged 15/16 in England, which are found to be significantly weaker than other countries, Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said:
"The exam factory culture in England’s schools is to blame for students lagging so far behind other nations in socio-emotional skills. Another driver is an obsession with memorisation of knowledge over the development of important skills, and exam-only assessment at the end of courses. The creation of rigid, overloaded curricula is also alienating for young people.
"SATs, the EBacc and Progress 8 must be ended. Their presence forces the arts out of the curriculum and drives the toxic school league table culture that now overrides everything else.
"We agree high quality early education is essential for children’s development. It should be accessible to all families, yet for too many this is not the case. We also need to see greater support for Maintained Nursery Schools (MNS) to provide the highest quality early education, especially for disadvantaged families and children with SEND. The government must guarantee their future.
"If the aim is to develop both knowledge and skills for healthy, motivated, well-rounded young people, then the current system does not deliver. The Curriculum and Assessment Review is a great opportunity to fix this, and it must not be squandered."