In today’s rapidly evolving world, the need for a more inclusive and equitable curriculum is more urgent than ever. Our current system – dominated by a rigid focus on academic assessments – fails to nurture the diverse talents of all students. This narrow focus on grades has steered education away from the holistic approaches set out in Labour’s 2007 Children’s Plan. The 2024 Labour government has an opportunity to level the grotesquely uneven playing field of education. In this blog post I draw on my own studies to make the case for creating a more equitable curriculum as a key ingredient for educational reset.

Meritocratic elites

The obsession with academic grades reveals a deeper societal trend: a system designed by elites to maintain their position across generations (Elliot Major & Machin, 2018). Batteries of knowledge tests are eminently gameable by parents with the economic and cultural capital to ensure their offspring stay ahead in the academic race – signalled by the huge boom in private tutoring outside schools.

Post-pandemic achievement gaps

My work with a range of colleagues shows this approach is not working for all children. Our Nuffield Foundation research highlights a double whammy faced by students in the post-pandemic world (Elliot Major et al., 2024). Successive cohorts are on track to experience the biggest decline in GCSE achievement in two decades. Worse yet, the socio-economic gap in results has widened to unprecedented levels. For boys who were five years old during Covid school closures, the likelihood of achieving five good GCSEs has dropped by 4.4 percentage points, while for girls, it has fallen by 4.8 percentage points. Our projections suggest that by 2030, fewer than four in ten pupils will achieve a grade 5 or above in English and maths – down from the 45.3 per cent who did so in 2022/23.

Benefits of arts and sports

There is growing recognition elsewhere across the globe that there is more to developing human talents than just preparing for narrow academic tests. Participation in arts and sports activities have important educational value in themselves. They are associated with improved socio-emotional skills from increased self-confidence and wellbeing, to enhanced social interaction and leadership skills.

Class biases

‘If we want to create a curriculum that reflects and celebrates the achievements of all backgrounds, we need to celebrate in our curriculum the countless examples of working-class achievements in society.’

Moreover, classroom discussions remain dominated by knowledge produced by and for middle-class society (Elliot Major & Briant, 2023). This alienates many working-class students, especially those whose families have historically been excluded or marginalised by the very institutions meant to serve them. If we want to create a curriculum that reflects and celebrates the achievements of all backgrounds, we need to celebrate in our curriculum the countless examples of working-class achievements in society. It’s quite right that all children should be introduced to ‘high art’ forms, but equally we should value other cultural activities as well. In recent years, exam questions in subjects like maths and modern languages have assumed a familiarity with activities such as skiing or theatre trips – assumptions that alienate and disadvantage those who have not experienced such activities.

Basic skills

An equitable curriculum must also ensure that all children, regardless of background, acquire the basic skills they need to thrive. A fifth of pupils fail to achieve a grade 4 in both English or maths GCSEs considered as the basic thresholds needed to function and flourish in life after school (Elliot Major & Parsons, 2022). Half of these pupils are judged by teachers to be behind at age five. Greater priority should be given to ensuring all pupils reach fluency in these basic skills whatever they go on to after school.

What should the Labour government do?

We must prioritise these basic skills while also broadening the curriculum to develop the full range of human talents. Arts, sports and enrichment activities are not optional extras; they are essential components of an education that prepares students for life beyond the classroom. If the Labour government is serious about creating a more equitable society, reforming the curriculum is one of the most important steps it can take.

References

Elliot Major, L., & Briant, E. (2023). Equity in education: Levelling the playing field of learning – a practical guide for teachers. John Catt Educational.

Elliot Major, L., & Machin, S. (2018). Social mobility: And its enemies. Pelican Books.

Elliot Major, L., & Parsons, P. (2022). The forgotten fifth: Examining the early education trajectories of teenagers who fall below the expected standards in GCSE English language and maths examinations at age 16. Centre for Longitudinal Studies Working Paper.  https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/CLS-Working-Paper-2022-6-The-forgotten-fifth.pdf

Elliot Major, L., Eyles, A., Lillywhite, E., & Machin, S. (2024). A generation at risk: Rebalancing education in the post-pandemic era. Nuffield Foundation. https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/A-generation-at-risk-rebalancing-education-in-the-post-pandemic-era-1.pdf