Ed Dorrell, TES Deputy Editor, began the meeting by offering an analysis of the school system, which he described as being overly dependent on exams to an extent that is damaging to children.
Building on this subject, Dr Mary Bousted, General Secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, spoke movingly about the account of a 16 year old schoolgirl entitled ‘Breathe in, breathe out’, which was published in the Guardian.
In the article, the girl, Orli Vogt Vincent, wrote that: “The system is teaching people that your best is not good enough. That you must constantly try harder and that one bad result makes you a failure”
Dr Bousted was particularly critical of the current exam system and argued that former Liberal Democrat minister David Laws had helped to enforce a pressurised and linear exam system alongside his Conservative colleague Michael Gove when they worked together at the Department for Education.
She went on to call for the consideration of different forms of assessment, saying: “How can it be right that in the 21st century that we have an exam system where speaking and listening is not an integral part of English? The way we speak and the way we listen is the most important skill that we have”
“The timed written paper is an important skill but it is not the only skill”.
She added that 18 two hour exams in a week was too intense for 16 year old students, and meant that teachers “don’t have time to talk to students” during those periods.
“If we measure children and young people by their ability to pass timed, written exams, we treat them as commodities,” she said.
Dr Bousted pointed to a recent statement by the CBI’s Director General John Cridland who called for GCSE’s to be retired and replaced with personalised education plans, as well as breaking down the barrier between further education institutions and schools, and improving careers advice.
The NSPCC’s John Cameron highlighted the importance of safeguarding young people in schools and described the implementation of safeguarding as “everybody’s business”.
He said that whilst people naturally focus on safeguarding children from physical abuse, neglect and sexual abuse, adults must also take into consideration their emotional, behavioural and social development.
With children’s counselling service ChildLine reporting a 200% rise in calls over exam pressures, Mr Cameron stressed the need for change.
Analysing the issues raised by the young people in distress, the NSPCC found that they covered 3 main areas.
These were pressures from under achieving, which often lead to self-harm and mental health issues; parental anxiety and family disruption; and failure of schools to detect issues, as children no longer view teachers as trusted adults due to increased workload at school.
Mr Cameron also expressed concern over evidence that pressures on schools to achieve results had seen a decline in PSHE teaching, which he described as crucial in preventing children joining gangs or becoming radicalised.
In addressing these issues Dr John Pugh, MP for Southport, criticised the Government’s approach, which he labelled: ‘educational reductionism’. He argued that as a country we should not be worried that if we don’t imitate the Chinese model we will be owned by the Chinese, saying that was “a very narrow and limited concept of what education is about”.
Drawing on his experience as a former teacher, Dr Pugh conceded that the pressures on young people now had intensified over the years.
“Being a kid now is quite tough. Being an adolescent is always quite tough,” he said.
Speaking from the audience, Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Sharp hailed the positive impact the party had had on policy under the Coalition Government, not least with the introduction of the pupil premium, free school meals and extra investment in early years.
However, she accepted some criticism for failings in some areas of education policy and said she was especially concerned about cutbacks affecting PSHE teaching and careers advice, which she described as “totally inadequate”.
The Liberal Democrat peers, she added, had “bitterly opposed [Michael] Gove from the start” over careers advice changes.