Test Scores Are Plummeting Across Europe. England Held the Line.

Strictly Education

The episode examines recent PISA results revealing a global decline in student performance across Europe, the US, and Australia, while England has maintained its educational standing. Host Katharine Birbalsingh

Key takeaways

• England's most disadvantaged 25% of students now outperform average pupils in Germany, France, and Norway on PISA reading tests.
• Michael Gove faced intense hostility from teachers and politicians when implementing traditional curriculum reforms in 2010, with critics calling them outdated and cruel.

Main topics

• PISA international test results
• Michael Gove education reforms

Notable quotes

"England's teenagers outperform peers in most countries."

Conclusion

The episode argues that traditional, knowledge-rich education policies once mocked as

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) As for the parents, it's the same thing. The same terrible values that are ruining schools, values that we need to reject, are the same values normal families are up against. And it takes courage to decide that you're Speaker 3 (0:12) going to think for yourself. Speaker 3 (0:20) Hello, and welcome to Strictly Education with me, Catherine Birbal-Singh, Britain's strictest headmistress. So today I want to talk about test Speaker 1 (0:27) scores and our kids. The international PISA results came out a few weeks ago. And for those of you who don't know, PISA is an international test that happens about every three years for 15-year-olds. Speaker 3 (0:37) And it's sat by countries all over the world in maths, science, and reading. The idea is that it lets us compare which countries are doing well and which countries Speaker 1 (0:45) are doing badly. And the reason this is big news here in England is that we're seeing headlines like this. England's teenagers outperform peers in most countries. We're in the top 10 countries for every subject. In fact, in reading, the most disadvantaged 25 % Speaker 3 (1:00) of children in England outperformed the average pupils in places like Germany, France, and Norway. So it's huge. So there's a sense that education reforms in England over the last decade and a half seem to have worked. So hooray! Now, what's interesting is to look at what was said about those same education reforms back when they were introduced by a man called Michael Gove. So Michael Gove was the education secretary for the conservative party that were in power at the time. Here's an example. Let's look. Speaker 1 (1:39) You don't know what you're doing. And the signs? Speaker 3 (1:42) Gove out. This sort of thing was everywhere. Let me tell you, Michael Gove was hated. Here's another example of a union leader reading a poem about Gove. Speaker 6 (1:53) These boots are made for walking, and that's just what they'll do. March 26th, we're going to walk all over you. You keep playing where you shouldn't be playing. You keep thinking that you'll never get first. But we stand up for education and children. You need to listen and show us some respect. These boots are made for walking. And that's just what they'll do. March 26th, we're going to walk all over you. Speaker 3 (2:27) My apologies to Nancy Sinatra, whose song she's mangling. You can hear her there. You need to listen. We're going to walk all over you. I mean, what the hell? Anyway, the point is, far too many teachers for my liking were very, very angry. That was over 10 years ago. What they were saying back then is that everything Michael Gove was doing was wrong. And that's because the education reforms in England back in 2010 were quite different from what was being implemented in other countries in Europe and around the world. Those teachers were angry and they were saying we should be doing what other Speaker 1 (3:02) countries are doing instead of what Michael Gove is telling us to do. And that's what's interesting. Now we're 10 years later from all those protests. What happened to those same Speaker 3 (3:12) countries these teachers wanted us to copy? Well, they're tanking in their literacy, numeracy, and science scores. Elsewhere, we've had headlines like these. In France, unprecedented drop in performance echoes worldwide decline. Here's Australia. Let's take a look. The Speaker 4 (3:29) results are in and Aussie student scores for maths, reading and science have continued a 20-year decline. The results are from PESA, which is kind of like NAPLAN, but for over Speaker 3 (3:40) 90 countries across the world. A Speaker 1 (3:41) 20-year decline in Australia. How about elsewhere in Europe? Now, for a very long time, the argument has been that England should follow whatever is happening in Finland or Norway. In fact, that's exactly what those angry teachers were saying. Here's Finland now. Let's look. Speaker 8 (3:59) The Finnish education system has always been one of the best in the world, but that is not the case anymore. With the new PISA results published, Finland... Finland's downward trend keeps going on. Speaker 3 (4:10) Okay, so you're getting the picture. In fact, Norway has also plummeted. Something big is going on. As Speaker 1 (4:18) for my American listeners, the picture is obviously more complicated. The different American states have really different approaches, and so often it's more interesting with America to compare attainment Speaker 3 (4:29) between the different states. But the general picture in the U.S. is, I'm afraid, more or less the same. Speaker 4 (4:36) Let's listen. In the U.S. specifically, it said, quote, in reading and mathematics, however, the most recent results are below those observed in 2018 and among the lowest ever observed. Speaker 3 (4:47) Among the lowest ever observed. In fact, globally, these are the lowest scores since we first started testing in 2000. That's true even with East Asian places that are top, like Singapore. Korea, Japan, China. So this graph is the average across all of the OECD countries. It's saying a 15-year-old today is nearly a year behind one in 2018 when it comes to maths and reading. A whole year. Now, interestingly, there are a handful of exceptions to this dramatic decline, including England. So Speaker 1 (5:30) there's an obvious question we're going to get to. What would make most education systems across the world get worse over the last Speaker 3 (5:40) 20 years? And also, why are countries like England bucking that trend? So let's start with why everything Speaker 1 (5:47) is getting worse. There are a few myths which, for me, don't stack up at all. First, some people will say COVID. Our children are all suffering because of COVID. You can see where they're coming from, I suppose. You know, school being closed for a year or more is obviously a problem. But I don't think you can explain what's going on, actually. England closed its schools during COVID, Speaker 3 (6:10) while Sweden kept them open. England's results have improved since 2018, which was before the Speaker 1 (6:17) pandemic. Sweden's results have gone down since then. If students in England can get back to the same level as before the pandemic or even improve, that would suggest it's possible to do this elsewhere. And on top of that, the decline in a lot of places started before the pandemic had even happened. While the pandemic might have made things worse, it doesn't account for the global fall. In searching for an explanation, some people Speaker 3 (6:44) have Speaker 1 (6:45) suggested that it might be money. Is it just the case that the best systems simply spend more? Well, that doesn't really stack up either. Here's some reporting on performance within the European Union. Speaker 6 (6:56) The report also states the world is no longer divided into rich countries with great schools and poor countries with weak ones. For instance, Luxembourg is by far the biggest spender on education, but it posted lower average science scores than Ireland, France and Italy, all of which invested less than half that amount per student. Speaker 1 (7:17) Right, so the world is no longer divided into rich countries with good schools and poor countries with weak ones. Within the United Kingdom itself, we have a similar situation. There's no difference in funding between Scotland, England, Speaker 3 (7:32) Wales, and Northern Ireland. But they have totally different education systems. Take Scotland. It was historically the highest performer in the UK by far 20 years ago. I Speaker 1 (7:45) remember it. In the early 2000s, a Scottish pupil would be around half a year ahead of an English one. But now, 20 years later, Scottish pupils are around a year behind. But they've had the same money. That tells you it isn't just about resources. So how do we explain the changes? How could a handful of countries like England hold or improve their scores since COVID while the majority have plummeted? Let's start with England and go back to the ancient history of 2010. We've Speaker 3 (8:19) already seen how angry teachers were at Michael Gove, the education secretary in England. Michael Gove said we needed to raise standards. We needed a more traditional education. Speaker 1 (8:30) We should study traditional and hard texts. We shouldn't dumb down content. Teachers should lead the learning and tell kids off. We should have tough exams that everyone has to sit. Speaker 3 (8:40) Kids should work on pen and paper, not walk around the room and that sort of thing. Okay, so it's music to my ears, really. Gove's opponents said Speaker 1 (8:49) we needed the opposite of that, children moving freely around the classroom so that they could be creative. Teachers said we needed the children doing projects together and discussing or learning by play, not sitting Speaker 3 (9:02) and listening to the teacher. God forbid. To take you back to before 2010, the curriculum in England was seen as quite flimsy and a bit insubstantial. So Gove made the decision to make the curriculum more traditional. In English... Harder classical texts were added. In maths, the questions were made more difficult. Gove pushed subjects like Latin, including in poorer areas. History now included more content, and children were expected to know a lot more stuff. Ask any teacher. School got harder. Gove Speaker 1 (9:36) got rid of coursework modules where teachers and children could basically cheat and instead focused on more rigorous exams where children Speaker 3 (9:44) had to know things and be tested on that. This is what gets called a knowledge-rich curriculum. It's Speaker 1 (9:53) the idea that we need the curriculum to be full of knowledge and then expect children to memorize that knowledge and then we test them on it. And then once they know things, they can use that knowledge to think critically. That knowledge, which then lives in a child's long-term memory, then becomes the building blocks to answer harder questions as they get older. So in terms of the changes that Gove made, he encouraged children to memorize great poems or sections of great literature, the best that's been thought and said. So of course, Michael Gove was slammed for this because it was seen to be outdated. Here's one news program from the time. Just look at the contempt. Can Speaker 8 (10:37) the panel please recite a poem that they learned by wrote at school and explain how this has been useful in their subsequent careers? Speaker 3 (10:49) Everyone is laughing at the idea that we should drill our kids in the great poems and that they should memorize them, not just Speaker 1 (10:55) for literacy, but also for their sense of knowledge of the country. Here's Speaker 3 (10:59) one politician. I Speaker 2 (11:00) think quite clearly, you know, Gove in