Posted on 07/29/2003 6:49:37 AM PDT by attagirl
School tests breach UN convention, envoy claims Will Woodward, education editor Monday July 14, 2003 The Guardian
The government is breaching the United Nations convention on children's rights by imposing a targets and testing regime in English schools that ignores their needs, a UN representative has warned.
In an interview with the Guardian, Katarina Tomasevski, special rapporteur on the right to education for the UN commission on human rights, said she believed the British government was in technical breach of the convention.
Article 29 says education should be "directed to the development of the child's personality, talents and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential".
She said that the current system of tests at seven, 11, 14 and 16 for children in England was designed to fulfil government objectives rather than meet the needs of children.
Professor Tomasevski also argued that the government's support for tuition fees contravened the convention, which calls for governments to "make higher education accessible to all on the basis of capacity by every appropriate means". She said that in Britain, universities were being given "designer labels" and education was being defined as "merchandise".
There was inconsistency in the government's willingness to talk about human rights in relation to education in other countries but not in Britain, she said.
There were "far too many" compulsory tests in English schools, Prof Tomasevski added.
Children were tested so much that she wondered whether the government wanted England "to become another Singapore" - where in a poll pupils aged 10-12 said they were more worried about failing their exams than about their parents dying.
Prof Tomasevski, professor of law and international relations at Lund University in Sweden, has held the post of special rapporteur, an unpaid ambassadorship, since 1998. She produces an annual report on worldwide developments and carries out missions to specific countries.
She came to Britain to produce a report in 1999 and again in 2001, when she visited Holy Cross girls' school in Belfast, subject of a sectarian feud.
"Education has to be in the best interests of the child and it [government policy] is not. It's not about learning, enabling children to learn and develop, it is about skills in test-taking, it's pushing them through industrial production of test-takers," she said.
"We should drive away from this competitive-oriented uniformity, that all children should be cookie-cutter test-takers.
"Wherever testing is introduced it tends to overwhelm the whole design of education. Teachers have to teach the test because that's how children are evaluated and how teachers are evaluated. The voice of children is missing."
In this country children were caught in the crossfire between the government and teachers over testing. "It leaves children as the hostages of a battle which is highly political," she said.
"The thing which I find particularly intriguing in the United Kingdom is the ideology which underpins the whole movement which is about target-setting and delivery - which is an ideology which comes from a command and control economy, it comes from the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China ... why is it that such a strange ideological import of targets and delivery to targets has been introduced in the United Kingdom?
"The government uses human rights rhetoric abundantly talking about education in other countries, but not at all talking about education in the United Kingdom. Very strange."
Her remarks will irritate ministers at the Department for Education and Skills and at the Department for International Development. But they add to the swell of opinion against the government's continued support for testing and league tables, particularly in primary schools.
Steve Sinnott, deputy general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said her views were very controversial and divisive but had to be heard.
"She is saying things that are highly critical of our education system, but she's taken on a brief which is to ensure that there is a child's perspective on education development in the UK. We need to take that on board.
"She speaks with significant authority and I think we in the UK should consider very seriously what she's got to say."
EducationGuardian
Did you not read the article?
The UN thinks it knows better than local governments how to teach a child.
Would you sign a contract allowing me to control the education of your child?
Does that help?
"Can someone please list reasons to not ratify the UN convention for the rights of the child."cc-c, The main one is that the Convention for the rights of the child states that, "No child shall be prevented from making associations with any of those whom the child chooses." {Paraphrased, but right on} Now, this in itself is a lie, because the U.N. bureaucrats WILL {DO} prevent children from associating with those the U.N. chooses. But, parents will NOT be able to make any choices in their children's associates. Do YOU want that for ANY child, let alone your own children?? Peace and love, George.
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You need to read between the lines.
The fact that everyone's ratified it but 2 nations is no reason to go ahead with it.
The UN is anti-family and anti-God.
The Daily Telegraph has been running stories about the increasing number of politicians and teachers who send their children to private schools.
And we're supposed to ask these people for permission to take actions to defend our own national security?
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