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NEWS • VIEWS • INFORMATION • ADVICE


Phonics imposition opposed

NASUWT members have given a resounding no to plans by the Coalition Government to restrict the methods used to teach pupils to read.

Ministers have announced plans to allow primary teachers to use only systematic synthetic phonics, a system of teaching children to read by blending letter sounds.

The Coalition Government’s plans also include a compulsory reading test for all six year olds.

The Coalition Government’s plans to impose the use of systematic synthetic phonics is based on an assertion that this is the ‘most effective way of teaching young children to read’. Yet the evidence relied on to make this assertion is still widely contested and far from authoritative.

Survey

In order to gauge the views of members on this important issue, the Union undertook an online survey of members on its website. Over 2,000 members responded and overwhelmingly endorsed the Union’s view that adopting such a narrowly prescriptive and judgemental approach would be detrimental to the work of teachers and the education of pupils.

The survey found that:

• nearly half of respondents opposed the Coalition Government’s plan to introduce a reading test for all pupils at the end of Key Stage 1;
• over two thirds were against the narrow focus on phonics in any such reading assessment. Almost the same proportion were opposed to the tests containing non-words;
• over three quarters of those surveyed were worried that the outcomes of a reading test would be used as a way of judgeing or grading teachers’ performance. A similar number were also opposed to the results being used to inform Ofsted judgements;
• 70% were against the results of any reading test being included in any publically available performance table;
• over half of respondents felt that the introduction of a reading test would place undue stress on pupils.

Teacher opposition

Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said the results of the survey demonstrated the growing wave of distrust and frustration being felt by the profession at the Coalition Government’s proposals for education reform.

“The Coalition Government has made a virtue of asserting on a regular basis that it wants to trust and empower teachers. However, requiring teachers to use only synthetic phonics to teach children to read demonstrates that the reality is quite the opposite.

“Such imposition is entirely incompatible with an approach that seeks to respect and enhance teacher professionalism.

“What the Coalition is proposing for teachers is the equivalent of telling surgeons they can use only a scalpel to perform an operation. They wouldn’t dream of interfering in this way with a surgeon’s practice. Why should teachers’ professionalism and judgement merit less respect?

“Parents should be alarmed that the Coalition’s dogged insistence on systematic synthetic phonics will mean that their children will be starved of access to books.”

Dubious evidence

The Government describes systematic synthetic phonics as the ‘proven’ best method of teaching early reading. However, the true picture, as with many of the ‘facts’ it uses to justify its decisions, is decidedly less clear cut.

Previous research has shown that while synthetic phonics is a useful tool in teaching pupils to read, it is not a silver bullet to tackle underachievement and teachers must be able to exercise their own professional judgement and expertise in deciding what is best for their students.

The Coalition claims that changes are needed to tackle major underachievement in reading in schools. While the Union agrees that it is important that work continues to raise standards, it believes such claims are neither true nor fair to the thousands of hard-working primary teachers. Standards in English have gone up remarkably in primary schools since 1995 when only 49% of pupils reached the Level 4 standard, to today when approximately 80% do so.

The NASUWT contends that these plans are little more than another attempt by the Government to deliberately malign the profession in order to justify its mission of driving down pay and conditions and giving state education over to private providers.

“The results of this survey should give the Coalition Government serious pause for thought about their plans to roll out across the country the use of systematic synthetic phonics,” Ms Keates added.

“Teachers clearly have deep reservations about all aspects of the Coalition’s plans and their professional views must be considered.”

"The Government describes systematic synthetic phonics as the ‘proven’ best method of teaching early reading. However the true picture…is decidely less clear cut."