The rise in school exclusions is a result of the education market | Letters

Readers look at the causes of children being ‘off-rolled’ in a system where exams are the main measure of achievement

The exclusion rates in state schools are indeed “deeply concerning”, if not a national scandal (Revealed: dozens of schools excluding one in five pupils, 1 September). A significant number of children who ought to be in school are left to their own devices, often wandering around public spaces. It is not the children who are to blame, but the government that has reduced state education in England to a quasi-market where children and their families are the customers, and high achievement in a narrow range of subjects the product.

Schools are judged on their national test and examination results, producing winners and losers. Headteachers and teachers either keep or lose their jobs, or communities keep or lose schools. For academies, any local control on their activities has been removed and they are accountable to no one except Ofsted. Children who find learning difficult or have other special needs have little value in the market, hence they are excluded and their needs are overlooked in favour of those children who learn what they are expected to learn, when they are expected to learn it. It is not surprising that many schools seek opportunities to remove children who will not get “good” results.

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2oG9DGY