学进去

Ask a man in the street what education is for, and an immediate response might be “for equipping young people with the skills to get a job”. Well, yes，but is education not about a lot more than that?

Indeed, I would argue that it is because our British education holds a higher ideal (理想)- equipping young people with self-confidence and an understanding of the world around them-that it is booming internationally.

Yet I believe that what makes our education great is being threatened by the ever increasing focus on teaching to the test. The focus has arisen because only by testing children can we know what progress they have made. It's a paradox(自相矛盾)，since the curriculum（课程）changes that are taking effect were designed to widen young people's knowledge of the world around them.

But please do not misunderstand me. I am not suggesting that tests should be withdrawn. I am saying that schools need to have the confidence to aim much higher and wider than teaching to the test. They should put a rich learning experience for students first; the test should be used to validate(证实) learning, not an end in itself.

Teachers count. A good many subject teachers know their departments have been short-changing their students, but they lack the self-confidence and support to move away from teaching to the test. So, what is the secret to getting back on track? What good schools have known all along is that a staffroom full of teachers with a good knowledge of what they are teaching, together with a passion and skill for communicating it, lies at the heart of the best education. Teachers' insistence on putting their love of subjects first will produce more engaged(参与) students. And with more engaged students often come better examination results, greater self- confidence and so on.

Schools should also find the self-confidence to put a focus on inspiring teachers who are keen to broaden what they teach. In this way, I believe educational achievement will improve.