The unusual sight of four former education secretaries giving evidence to a select committee at the same time was to be found in Portcullis House today.
The children, schools and families committee is examining "the foundations of the education system" from Kenneth Baker to Ed Balls.
Lord Baker was joined by three education secretaries under Tony Blair – Estelle Morris, David Blunkett and Charles Clarke.
Committee chair Barry Sheerman began by asking Lord Baker about the introduction of the national curriculum as part of the 1988 Education Act, which also laid down testing and assessment criteria.
Baker, education secretary from May 1986 to July 1989, said the idea of a national curriculum was not a new one, and it was needed because poor schools had a poor curriculum.
There was inconsistency across the country, and while the current system may need "modification" there is still a need for a framework.
A Hexham response.
I lived and taught through it.
Any chance of real education dies as soon as Baker came on the scene. The other Thatcherites Blair & Brown have continued the whole wretched process.
Why so awful? No system based on what it is to be positively and fully human. Instead the process has de-humanized teachers - including de-professionalizing them.
Worse the whole process de-humanizes the pupils - via a fragmenting of consciousness.
Solution = re-humanization of the curriculum, pupil-experience and the professional lives of teachers.
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