The underperformance of white working-class boys in England’s education system is what has driven the government’s “obsession” with reading and phonics, the schools minister has said. Nick Gibb told a Westminster Hall debate today that a belief that children’s educational background has more of an impact than their social or cultural background was the “essential philosophy” behind the reforms of the last decade of Tory governments, and particularly their move towards a knowledge-rich curriculum. The debate was called by Ben Bradley, the Conservative MP for Mansfield, who recently called on the government to stop forcing all pupils down an academic path. During the debate, Bradley reeled off statistics which show that by age five, white boys from disadvantaged backgrounds are 13 per cent behind disadvantaged black boys and 23 per cent behind disadvantaged Asian girls in phonics. Responding on behalf of the government, Gibb said those statistics “are the ones that have driven this government’s education policy since 2010”. “Closing the attainment gap between those from disadvantaged backgrounds and their more advantaged peers is what has driven our obsession with ensuring children are taught to read effectively at the age of four or five, and ensuring six-year-olds can decode words using phonics. “It’s what has driven our desire for children to develop a love of reading and to help develop a wider vocabulary. It’s what has driven our determination to adopt the practise of the best-performing countries of the world in the teaching of mathematics in primary schools. “And it’s what has driven our determination to improve the cultural literacy of all children regardless of their background or gender, and ensuring they have the vocabulary which will not only help their reading, but which means they have the knowledge required for academic progress.” Gibb quoted a book called the Learning Gap, in which authors Harold Stevenson and James Stigler warn that it is an error to assume that it is diversity in children’s social and cultural background that poses greatest problem in teaching, when a far greater problem is variability in children’s educational background. “This is the essential philosophy behind the government’s drive to close the word gap, to close the attainment gap and to level up opportunity ensuring every child regardless of background or gender can fulfil their potential,” Gibb said. He said that philosophy had driven the government’s curriculum reforms, GCSE reforms, and its determination to move system away from a “so-called competence-based curriculum” to a knowledge-rich curriclum. And according to Gibb, these reforms “are beginning to show results”, despite recent government data which showed that the disadvantage gap actually widened over the past two years. “Standards are rising and the attainment gap between advantaged and the disadvantage gap is beginning to close, by 13 per cent in primary and 9 per cent in secondary since 2011.”
Janet Downs 12 February 2020 Gibb is wrong to suggest post-2010 reforms are based on the best in the world. The opposite is true. England is increasingly out of step. Most developed economies have graduation at 18 with none of the excessive focus on exams at age 16. And phonics, which Gibb takes credit for, were rolled out by Ed Balls before November 2017. https://www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2020/01/pm-boasts-about-record-sums-for-education-misleading-and-disingenuous
Jenni McDonough 12 February 2020 Oh how all teachers will love to hear the musings of Nick Numpty the times table tsar!
P. Paul 27 September 2020 We forget that children’s learning should start soon as possible through creative play, all of my children knew the alphabet at the age of one, phonics helped a lot as the sounding of letters helps with reading and spelling. Children’s brains are like sponges ready to learn many things. My youngest was reading, doing simple sums, learned basic Spanish and sign language. He was speaking full sentences at the age of 3 and have a conversation with adults. His reception teachers always said it’s amazing we can have a conversation with him. He had a vast amount of knowledge, and I left school with no G.C.S.E. Parents play a vital role in the way their child will develop a love for learning. The government should help mothers stay at home for the first two years, so that the child learns morals and the love for learning.