Bac to the future - again

Sometimes I despair that the government just does not understand what an effective and responsive education market it has created. Only a few short weeks after the EBacc was announced, schools are responding with vigour and determination. Schools up and down the country are busy redesigning the Year 10 curriculum for September to improve their standing in the EBacc tables – not, please note, to do the best for their pupils or the economy. This is the inevitable consequence of ‘high-stakes testing’ where the institution is assessed on any specific measure. I have the honour of being a governor at a secondary school that used to be in the National Challenge; after several years of hard graft by all concerned, together with inspired and committed leadership, the results for 5 GCSE A*-C including English and Mathematics have improved dramatically from 24% in 2007 to 45% in 2010, with 75% gaining 5 GCSE A*-Cs. But the EBacc success rate is just 2%. I expect to hear soon about how the curriculum needs to be changed to improve the EBacc score.