Ministerial meddling in the curriculum has gone too far and isn’t delivering for the economy, putting our country’s future economic success at risk.

Lucy Powell MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Education, in her first major speech of the year to the Education Foundation’s Education Reform Summit North in Sheffield today, will talk about the current challenges facing our schools system, warning that Ministers are failing our economy and our young people.

Talking about the curriculum, Lucy Powell MP, will say:

“Today I want to open up a conversation about how we can guarantee that future curriculums are fit for purpose. Young people have the right to a programme of study that prepares them for the modern world, with a strong connection to the needs of the economy. At the moment, this just isn’t happening.

“Instead, under the Tories we’ve seen parts of the curriculum personally drafted by the Education Secretary and then circulated for sign-off amongst Cabinet Ministers, each making the case for their own pet project to be included. In the current system, not only can the Education Secretary prescribe exactly what goes on in classrooms on a whim, but so can the Secretary of State for Defence, for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs or the Home Secretary.

“Ministerial diktat on the curriculum has gone too far and this approach is failing to meet the needs of our young people and our economy. It’s no wonder then that we now have the situation where 69 per cent of businesses and two–thirds of parents do not feel the education system prepares their children for work.

“In future, I want to see a broader-based process for curriculum development that links better to the needs of business, society and the knowledge and skills that we need for a strong economy.

“Of course, it is right that politicians as elected representatives and the Government of the day have a view on the core subjects that all young people are entitled to and use evidence from both home and abroad to ensure there is a high quality, broad and balanced framework of standards for each subject.

“But the detail of what happens in individual lessons should not be controlled in Whitehall. It should be for all schools to develop their curriculums that put this framework into practice in the classroom and make it meaningful for every young person. We should never allow the situation to arise again where Ministers are personally writing individual programmes of study for schools or prescribing the specific texts young people should study.”