Targets And Tests `Ruining Children`s Schooling`

Cambridge University`s review of the primary curriculum says history, geography, the arts and even science is being squeezed out.

Children's education in England is suffering because the curriculum focuses excessively on numeracy, literacy and rigid testing, the biggest review into primary school education for 40 years has found.

Cambridge University's review of the primary curriculum says history, geography, the arts and even science is being squeezed out.

It accuses the government of over-prescription and micromanagement which it says is suffocating learning and stifling teaching.

"Our argument is that their education and to some degree their lives, are impoverished if they have received an education that is fundamentally deficient," said the director of the Cambridge Primary Review Robin Alexander.

The report says schools should be freed of standard assessments tests and league tables to allow them to make better decisions of what and how to teach.

It accuses the government of trying to control what happens in every classroom in England in an overt politicisation of children's lives.

It says the introduction of national strategies in literacy and numeracy places an increasing strain on the curriculum, as schools now spend up to half of their time on these subjects.

"Our report steps back and says: 'what is primary education for and what are the aims,'" Alexander added.