Holding back pupils 'could improve standards'

Chris Woodhead has pointed out the success of other countries' education systems

Holding back pupils who fail to make progress in key subjects could help raise standards, according to the Chief Inspector of Schools in England, Chris Woodhead.

Mr Woodhead said the government should consider the idea, which was already working in other countries.

Writing in a pamphlet for the right-wing think-tank Politeia, he referred to studies showing English children trailing badly in maths and said: "We would do well to bear in mind (what) makes other countries in these studies so successful."

In particular, he pointed to classes in other European countries with much narrower ranges of ability, allowing for more effective teaching.

The government's numeracy and literacy strategies have been praised

In Germany, France and the Netherlands, children can be kept down a year if they fail to make the grade to move up to the next level, ensuring that classes are not held back by the progress of the slowest.

Mr Woodhead has declined to endorse the conclusions of the Politeia pamphlet, which include delaying the age at which young children - particularly boys - start school.

But a spokesman for the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) said Mr Woodhead did see merit in narrowing the ability range of teaching groups.

'We should learn more'

The spokesman said: "This is common practice in France and other European countries, holding children back if they are not ready to go on to the next stage.

"While he is not advocating this as a road we should necessarily move down, he does think we should learn more about the way it operates in other countries.

"We should look at the positive aspects as well as the negative ones, and then decide whether there is anything we could learn from it and whether it could be applicable here.

"Maybe we ought to have greater flexibility not just for less able children, but also for the brighter ones, allowing them to move through school more quickly."

Basics

Elsewhere in the Politeia pamphlet, Mr Woodhead paid tribute to the government's literacy and numeracy strategies in contributing to more effective teaching of the basics.

But he pointed out that in countries like Taiwan, Korea and Japan, all children were expected to master the basics of literacy and numeracy.

"This contrasts starkly with the belief within the English education system that perhaps 20% of children have special educational needs that prevent them making normal progress," he said.

"It is also significant that Pacific Rim countries focus on a small number of academic goals.

"In England, we have never been sufficiently clear and focused about what it is we want our schools to achieve," he said.