Mortgages and AI to be added to the curriculum in English schools

Children will be taught how to budget and how mortgages work as the government looks to modernize the national curriculum in schools in England.

They will also be taught how to spot fake news and disinformation, including AI-generated content, following the first review of what has been taught in schools for more than a decade.

Education Minister Bridget Phillipson said the government wanted to “reinvigorate” the curriculum but provide a “solid foundation” in core subjects such as English, maths and reading.

Headteachers said the review’s recommendations were “sensible” but would require “adequate funding and teachers”.

The government commissioned a review of national curricula and assessments in England last year in the hope of developing a “cutting-edge” curriculum that would narrow achievement gaps between the most disadvantaged pupils and their classmates.

It said it would consider many of the recommendations in the review, including scrapping the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), a progression benchmark introduced for schools in 2010.

It evaluates schools on how many students are learning English, maths, science, geography or history and a language, and how well they are doing.

The Department for Education (DfE) said the EBacc was “restrictive” and that the reforms, as well as its removal to Progress 8, another school ranking system, would “encourage students to study a wider range of GCSE subjects” such as arts.

Former Conservative schools minister Nick Gibb said the decision to abolish the EBacc would “lead to a rapid decline in foreign language learning”, which would increasingly focus on private schools and “the children of middle-class parents who can afford teachers”.

Other reforms that came as a result of the curriculum review include:

• Teaching financial literacy in mathematics classes or compulsory citizenship classes in primary schools
• Increased focus on detecting misinformation and disinformation, including the discovery of a new post-16 qualification in data science and artificial intelligence
• Reduce the time spent on GCSE exams by up to three hours per student on average
• Ensuring all children can sit three science GCSE exams
• More content about climate change
• Better representation of diversity

The review also recommended that sermons be given the same status in the curriculum as reading and writing; The charity Voice 21 said it was a “vital step forward” in teaching children valuable speaking, listening and communication skills.

However, the government is not implementing all of the review’s recommendations.

Reading exams for 8th grade students continue reported in Septemberwhereas the review recommended compulsory English and maths exams for that year group.

Asked why he had ignored the review’s advice, Phillipson told the BBC that students who could not read “fluently and confidently” often had difficulty in other subjects.

And addressing claims that scrapping the EBacc could lead to fewer students taking history, geography and languages ​​at GCSE, he said the measure “does not lead to improved outcomes” or “improve language learning”.

“I want young people to have a wide range of options, including things like arts, music and sports. And I know parents want that too,” he said.

Ministers recognized “the need to implement this carefully, comprehensively and with advance notice”, he said, adding that schools would give four terms of notice before they were expected to teach the new curriculum.

Prof Becky Francis, who chaired the review, said her panel of experts and the government had identified a “problematic” experience of pupils’ early years of secondary school.

“As young people progress from primary to secondary school, this is often a period when their learning begins to fall behind, and this is particularly true for children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds,” he told the BBC.

He said the approach to the review was “evolution not revolution”, with students in England performing relatively well compared to international averages.

He said the call for greater representation of diversity in the curriculum is not about “getting rid of the core foundational texts and things that are really central to our culture,” but rather about “recognizing where there are diverse contributions to science and cultural advancement, both as a nation and globally.”

Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott said the changes “undermine children’s understanding of our national story and conceal falling standards in schools”.

“Education vandalism will be the lasting legacy of the prime minister and Bridget Phillipson,” he added.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the review recommended “a sensible, evidence-based set of reforms”.

But delivering a “great curriculum” also requires “adequate funding and teachers”, he said, adding that schools and colleges do not currently have all the resources they need.

He said a set of “enrichment benchmarks” that the government said would offer students access to civic engagement, arts and culture, nature and adventure, sport and life skills had been “haphazardly” announced and “added to the many expectations against which schools are judged”.

Additional reporting by Hope Rhodes