CBI unconvinced by education reform
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has said that it is not convinced that the Tomlinson proposals for reform of 14-19 year olds education will tackle the key weaknesses.
It argues that these “key weaknesses” must be dealt with before the exam structure is reformed.
The CBI’s response to the interim report from the Tomlinson working group stressed that employers were largely satisfied with the performance of the higher achieving employees- with 76 per cent happy with the quality of their post A-Level recruits and few problems being reported with graduate recruits.
It argues that rather than a reform of the qualification structure the focus should be on ensuring that all young people leave school literate and numerate.
The interim Tomlinson report suggested the creation of a new diploma, at advanced, intermediate, foundation and entry levels. It suggested that all levels should be able to display “functional” maths and English- broadly equivalent to current GCSE level- and said that the new system would also seek to distinguish between the higher achieving pupils, for example by providing a more detailed breakdown of their results.
However, the CBI today said that whilst it had no fundamental problem with the restructuring of qualifications, its “greatest fear” is that a diploma could “divert attention from the essential tasks of improving numeracy and literacy standards.”
The CBI’s deputy director general, John Cridland, said: “CBI members are passionate about improving education. They are fully supportive of the Tomlinson Group objective of improving attainment levels.
“But business is not yet convinced that vital improvements to basic and key skills can be delivered at the same time as radical reform of qualifications towards an overall diploma. We look to the Government to demonstrate that both are possible.
“For employers, the absolute priority has to be higher standards.”
The CBI is calling for a detailed strategy to improve literacy and numeracy, in particularly correcting under performance and an action plan for establishing high quality vocational education.
It stresses that “as a bare minimum, young people need to leave school literate and numerate. Too many do not. The CBI/Pertemps Employment Trends Survey 2004 indicates that one third of employers have to provide remedial literacy and numeracy training for their young recruits.”
It argues that “given Government success in raising standards overall, tackling the underachievement of the significant minority of low achievers is the priority for employers.”
