The Secondary Heads' Association notes the growing expectations on schools to educate young people about social matters such as drugs and sex and to prepare them for adult life.

The pressure for courses in citizenship to take 5% of curriculum time is the latest of these expectations, it says.

In evidence for the review of the National Curriculum in England and Wales being carried out by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, the association expresses a fear among secondary school leaders that they will be made "scapegoats for failures which should be laid at society's door".

It says that what is abundantly clear from research is that schools cannot meet the challenges of preparation for adult life in isolation from other agencies.

"Almost every time that major problems emerge in society, schools get the blame," said the association's General Secretary, John Dunford. "Yet schools are beacons of light in matters of social education, giving young people the knowledge and skills to cope with the many problems which beset them."

Judgement

The union is calling for there to be less prescriptive detail in the curriculum up to the age of 14, allowing schools greater flexibility. It says precise content should be left up to the professional judgement of teachers.

There is a complaint that although there are no statutory requirements for the amount of time that should be devoted to particular areas of study, this is not always reflected in the actions and opinions of official schools inspectors.

The association also wants a retention of the breadth of subjects up to the age of 16 - including the requirement for all pupils to study a modern foreign language. It says not enough importance is attached to the arts and humanities.

It argues that the post-14 curriculum should be planned as a coherent whole and that reform of the final years of compulsory schooling needs to be carried out with other reforms of post-16 education, involving a single set of qualifications rather than the present academic/vocational split.