18 November 2012 Last updated at 19:05 ET
Business leaders say some UK schools have become “exam factories” and are calling for children to be given a broader education.
The CBI is calling for radical changes to schools.
It says there is too much focus on exams at 16 and that should be switched to 18, with more emphasis on skills people need for life and work.
It calls for schools inspectors and league tables to look beyond exam results.
But it says improved attainment would boost the UK’s economic growth.
The CBI, the employers’ organisation, made the recommendations in a report released at the start of its annual conference.
Its director general John Cridland said: “In some cases secondary schools have become an exam factory.
“Qualifications are important, but we also need people who have self-discipline and serve customers well. As well as academic rigour, we need schools to produce rounded and grounded young people who have the skills and behaviours that businesses want.”
The business leaders say their report is for the UK as a whole, but power over education is devolved from Westminster and policies and exams taken differ.
Some of their recommendations relate most closely to schools in England, where Education Secretary Michael Gove is overhauling the school system, including exams.
‘Cult of the average’
Mr Cridland told journalists the CBI was not criticising government policies – or teachers.
“Government reforms are heading in the right direction, but are not sufficient on their own and must go further and faster,” he said.
The report backs England’s academy programme – where schools are encouraged to take on more independence – but is also critical.
It attacks what it calls the “cult of the average”, saying 40% of young people are underachieving while the top 10% are not being stretched enough.
The report says UK schools have had 35 years of “piecemeal reforms” and the result has been a “gentle upswing in performance”, judged by international benchmarks, but also a “long tail of low achievement”.
In England, from 2015, young people will be expected to stay in education or training until they are 18 and the CBI says the focus should be switching more towards exams at 18, with improved vocational A-levels. All children should study English and maths until that age, it recommends, which is in line with Labour proposals.
A spokesman for the Department for Education said: “The CBI rightly recognises the importance of English and maths, calls for greater rigour in the curriculum and in exams, welcomes the academy programme, wants a new accountability system and backs greater freedom for teachers.
“These are all part of the government’s radical package of reforms that will give England’s education system the thorough overhaul it needs.”
BBC News – Business
Schools dubbed ‘exam factories’
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Schools dubbed ‘exam factories’
