Global school tests under attack as OECD accused of killing 'joy of learning'

[LeftishBrit]

Leading academics have accused the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) of acting as an unaccountable super-ministry of education which kills the "joy of learning" and turns schooling into "drudgery".

A letter signed by 120 leading academics and teachers from 12 countries – including Britain, the US and Germany – argues the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) tests on 15-year-olds distort the curriculum, reduce teachers' autonomy and increase children's stress levels.


...When their children's results fall down the league tables, governments often make sweeping changes in how schools are run and what they teach. The 1,300-word letter describes these as "short-term fixes" designed to boost league table positions, and argues that "enduring changes ... take decades". It says the next round of tests in 2015 should be scrapped.

The letter is published on the Guardian website and on globalpolicyjournal.com, an online hub for top academics and teachers.

"Education policy across the world is being driven by the single aim of pushing up national performance levels on Pisa," said one signatory, Stephen Ball, professor at London University's Institute of Education. "It's having a tremendously distorting effect, right down to the level of classroom teaching."...

Meyer warned that the OECD is expanding its testing into areas such as teacher training and higher education and "seems hell-bent on assessing every square inch of the educational globe"....

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/may/06/oecd-pisa-tests-education-joy-of-learning

[non sociopath skin]

1. Good. This needed saying.

The Skin