Schools Council (Hansard, 29 July 1982)

§ Sir Keith Joseph

The Government have proposed the separation of these two functions because, being very different, they ought to be managed by people with largely different qualifications and background.

The Government believe that examinations should be designed and used to serve the educational process. They should support it, not distort it. The examinations function, which it is proposed should be exercised by a separate examinations council and which was exercised by the Secondary Schools Examination Council from 1917 to 1964, has two main aspects: first, to supervise the system of examinations at 16-plus and 18-plus; second, to advise the Secretary of State for Wales and me on the way in which that system can best serve the curriculum, and meet the other needs of the clients of the education service. These are the tasks which we intend the proposed examinations council to perform.

This examinations function is very different from the function which the Government propose in relation to curriculum development. That function relates to both primary and secondary education and to non-examinable as well as examinable parts of the curriculum. Its purpose is to help teachers and many others throughout the education service to discharge one of their main professional and practical tasks. Experience since 1964 has cast doubt on the wisdom of trying to integrate the two functions in a single body.

But although the functions are best discharged separately because they are so different, there are some links between them. The Government intend that such links should be embodied in a practical way in the two bodies which they propose should replace the Schools Council.

The Government's proposals for separating the two functions are fortified by practical experience in Scotland, where the consultative Committee on the Curriculum collaborates closely and effectively with the Scottish Certificate of Education Examining Board.