Introduction

Now the view in Britain is rather that education is too important to be left to teachers. Whereas the curriculum and syllabus were previously the concern of the professionals, the Government now deeply distrusts professionals, not just in education but in every profession. The Secretary of State has assumed massive powers in a series of Education Acts, and there is a National Curriculum which is not just a curriculum but which intrudes into the detail, and often the fine details, of the syllabus. It is the Secretary of State who tells us when ‘history’ stopped and what books constitute ‘literature’. The teachers themselves are subject to constant instruction and criticism, while the progress of students is measured by a series of externally administered tests, which do not command the support of the majority of teachers. The results of the tests are published, for the information of parents, in a series of ‘league tables’. The twin concepts of accountability and cost effectiveness are now as common in discussions about education as they are in discussions of industry and commerce.