EDUCATIONAL-REFORM IN BRITAIN - BEYOND THE NATIONAL CURRICULUM

The essay begins with an account of why Britain introduced a National Curriculum for English and Welsh schools in 1988 in place of its previously more autonomous system. It goes on to analyse the content and aims of the National Curriculum and includes a comparison with Stalin's curriculum for schools in the USSR. An alternative to the National Curriculum is sketched out, centring around the aim of promoting personal autonomy for all. In the last part of the paper recent British experience of greater centralization and vocational orientation of the curriculum is contrasted with recent moves by the USSR State Committee on Education towards the democratization and humanization of the Soviet school system. © 1990 Unesco Institute for Education and Kluwer Academic Publishers.