Disability Rights UK has responded to the Curriculum and Assessment Review, launched by the Department for Education at the end of September. DR UK's full response can be found below.
The Curriculum and Assessment Review aimed to identify the "most significant and pressing issues facing curriculum and assessment". It included over 50 questions ranging from the qualification pathways available, to the prioritisation of Maths and English in school, and what needs improving in the education system. The review states that it aimed to "focus on addressing these without destabilising the system" - that it wanted to bring about "evolution, not revolution.”
DR UK's response outlines four broad sections - Curriculum, Assessment, Qualification Pathways, and Access to Education. The first three sections cover the majority of the questions in the review, while specifically highlighting the barriers that Disabled young people face, and the final section covers many of the barriers that young Disabled people face before they've even got access to a classroom. For example - the ways in which we're disproportionately excluded, the ways that rigid attendance policies limit our opportunities, and the way that support we're legally entitled to is gatekept by local authorities and education providers.
Some of the recommendations made in the lengthy response include:
- Co-produce content for the curriculum with Disabled people and Disabled led groups that educates on inclusion – including the history of Disabled people’s fight for rights, what inclusion is, and why it matters.
- GCSE and A-Level assessments must become more flexible and inclusive. There should be a review into GCSE and A-Level assessments with the aim of exploring how much could be assessed in other ways – e.g. coursework, presentations etc. and whether all competency standards are relevant. Exam boards should have to demonstrate why a competency standard is reflective of the wider working world, how it accurately assesses a young person’s understanding and skills, and how it prevents putting any young person at an unfair disadvantage.
- Introduce financial support for living costs in Further Education, including part-time and full-time study, bringing it in line with the maintenance support made available for students in Higher Education. Remove the barriers to accessing Universal Credit as a student.
- The wrap-around support provision during the post-16 transition must be improved and unnecessary barriers like cuts to transport funding and poor careers advice should be tackled. A young Disabled person’s post-16 journey should be mapped in advance, with support provided to raise aspirations and ensure that support plans will be implemented at future education or training settings.
- Incorporate the UNCRDP into domestic law and follow the aspirational framework for inclusive education. Fund local authorities and education providers to prevent the gatekeeping of support and co-produce non-discriminatory behavioural management and attendance policies with Disabled-led groups.
- Create a tangible accountability system for local authorities and education providers who have unlawful practice and refuse the support that Disabled people are entitled to.
Bethany Bale, DR UK Education Campaigner said: "The barriers Disabled pupils face start long before they enter the classroom – and many children don’t even get that far. The education system was never built for us, and if it’s ever going to be inclusive then it requires structural and transformative change. Tinkering around the edges of a broken system won't remove the systemic barriers that we face.
All the while the Department for Education continues to seek “evolution, not revolution” it will continue to fail Disabled young people – stacking the odds against us at the very beginning of our lives."