Institute of Education - Keep politics out of schools

Control of the school curriculum should be taken away from politicians and passed to an independent education commission, an educationist has argued. But the commission needs to be protected from "government interference", according to John White from the Institute of Education, University of London. Speaking at a conference last week, he warned: "We need a way of ensuring that the school curriculum is kept at arm's length from individual politicians' idiosyncratic preferences." The professor of philosophy of education argued for a curriculum based not on subjects but on aims that will equip pupils "to lead a flourishing personal and civic life in a modern liberal democracy".