THE PROB LEMS OF EDUCATION ARE NOT GE NE TIC 327THE DRIVE FOR ACHIEVEMENTOne of these is the intensifi ed pressure on schools for improving attain-
ments, as noted above. It is partly a reaction to growing social inequali-
ties and the need to reinforce the equal opportunities ideology. And it
is partly a fear of falling behind the developing economies, particularly
those of East Asia. Th e superiority of the latter in the PISA ratings, as
mentioned earlier in chapter 10, has led to many attempts, on both sides
of the Atlantic to emulate them through school reforms.
It has resulted in more per for mance league tables, more test- focused
teaching, more pressure on children, more homework, and more pressure
on parents to get their children into the “best” schools. In the United
States, the Race to the Top program, has increased the use of standard-
ized testing for student, teacher, and administrator evaluations. Th ese
rank and label students, as well as teachers and administrators, accord-
ing to the results of tests that are widely known to be imperfect.
In the United Kingdom, the schools minister has announced (August
2015) an extension of the “Chinese method of maths learning.” It involves
highly disciplined practice with the fi ne details of arithmetical pro cesses
(e.g., solving an equation) that pupils will then be able to repeat mecha-
nistically, step by step, but it is largely devoid of meaningful content or
social relevance.
Many educators are complaining about the narrow form of learning
now becoming pervasive and the authoritarian atmosphere that it fosters
in schools. Th ey are warning that the intensifi cation of schooling to be
stressful “exam factories” is damaging the mental health of children. For
example, in 2014, nearly one hundred educators from around the world
signed a letter to Andreas Schleicher, head of PISA, attacking the OECD’s
PISA rankings and saying that the next round of tests should be canceled.
Th ey complain about the shift to “short- term fi xes,” about “alliances with
multi- national for- profi t companies,” about the way the testing focus
“harms our children and impoverishes our classrooms, as it inevitably
involves more and longer batteries of multiple- choice testing, more
scripted ‘vendor’- made lessons, and less autonomy for teachers. It also
further increases pupil and teacher stress levels” (letter published in the
Guardian, May 6, 2014).
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