Thumbs down for EBacc from Academy Heads
04 Feb 2011
I've just been chairing a panel debate at the Independent Academies Association annual conference. Some every interesting comments from the panel members, who included two academy heads and the CEO of a chain of several academies.
Asked "is the EBacc a good thing?", both academy heads gave a simple "no".
The CEO was slightly more favourable to the EBacc but only, he said, if there were other performance measures alongside it, such as a "Tech Bacc" covering achievement in a wider range of subjects than the EBacc's Maths, English, sciences, a foreign language and a humanity.
Hmm! Something for Michael Gove to ponder coming as it does from his favourite sector.
As another academy principal said to me afterwards: how does the EBacc fit with the government's commitment to University Technical Colleges, where students will focus on technical and vocational subjects and so probably won't achieve the new 'gold standard' EBacc?
User Comments
Sign-up for email alerts
To get an update email each time the website is updated please sign-up using the form below.
Search this website
Most read blog entries
Archive
Mike's latest tweets
RSS
Stay updated with the Mike Baker news feed.
Click here
John Connor - 06 Feb 2011
EBacc
The Ebacc has less to do with improving young peoples' life chances than it has to do with the imposition of one man's view of education, heavily influenced by his own experience, and visited upon the system with no consultation. It is simply a stick to beat state schools with and will not equip young people adequately for the challenges of the 21st century. Nothing vocational? Latin favoured above ICT? It is a monstrous gamble with the future of a generation.
julie cunningham - 08 Feb 2011
ebacc
i reside in a poverty stricken part of this country. my son's school has just come out of special measures. he had the opportunity to attend a grammar school but he chose to attend the local school to be with his friends. he has done very well in all of his classes without being pushed. he is in year nine and he has been invited to take the ebacc. if this is a 'golden' qualification, then i want it for him. at worst he just obtains his gcses but if he has the opportunity to have something similar to have a traditional education, i am all for it. it isn't whether today's schools prepare youngsters for the modern work place but what they are able to do when they get there. the ability to apply methods to other things. things continually change and if a child has the ability to work hard and the incentive to do so, then he should have the ability to do so. if i wanted my son to do something practical i would send him to college to be a plumber! if and when he has finished his education and he wants to be a plumber or a painter and decorator then he can be....but until then i want a academic and traditional education the state facilities can offer....