From TODAY, World
Thursday, 26-March-2009
British Curriculum
Proposal to shift primary education towards newer trends
LONDON — Children in Britain will no longer have to study the Victorians or the Second World War under proposals to overhaul the primary school curriculum.
According to the draft plans, children will be required to master Twitter and Wikipedia and teachers will be given far more freedom to decide what youngsters should be concentrating on in classes.
The proposed curriculum, which would mark the biggest change to the country's primary schooling in a decade, strips away hundreds of specifications about the scientific, geographical and historical knowledge pupils must accumulate.
It emphasises traditional areas of learning — including phonics, the chronology of history and mental arithmetic — but includes more modern media and Web-based skills as well as a greater focus on environmental education.
The plans have been drawn up by Sir Jim Rose, former chief of the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills, who was appointed by ministers to overhaul the primary school curriculum, and are due to be published next month.
Based on draft plans seen by The Guardian, the proposals require children to be familiar with blogging, podcasts, Wikipedia and Twitter as sources of information and forms of communication. They must gain "fluency" in handwriting and keyboard skills, and learn how to use a spellchecker alongside how to spell.
Children should also be able to place historical events within a chronology, as listed in the proposals. Each child would learn two key periods of British history but it would be up to the school to decide which ones.
Mr John Bangs, head of education at the National Union of Teachers, said: "It seems to jump on the latest trends such as Wikipedia and Twitter. Then it has very traditional descriptions of chronological teaching of history. It seems to be about trends on the one hand, then political pressure on the other hand — the government didn't want to look like it is scrapping traditional education."
The Department for Children, Schools and Families issued a statement on the report, saying: "Pupils in primary school will learn about major periods including the Romans, the Tudors and the Victorians and will be taught to understand a broad chronology of major events in this country and the world."
Meanwhile, the British government is considering plans to monitor Facebook, Myspace and other networking sites in an attempt to tackle crime and terrorism. The Home Office is thinking of requiring such sites to hold data about their users' movements to thwart criminals who use them to communicate.
THE GUARDIAN, THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
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