Publishers Association joins call to suspend future curriculum body plans

The Publishers Association has joined other organisations to call on the Department for Education to reconsider its radical plans for an arms-length future curriculum body due to a lack of evidence and of due scrutiny, exacerbated by current political uncertainty. 

The letter, sent to the new Secretary of State for Education James Cleverley, is signed by Publishers Association, British Educational Suppliers Association, Society of Authors, Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society, Copyright Licensing Agency and Publishers Licensing Services.

It states that all current evidence indicates that the Department is pursuing a major market intervention into the school resources market which teachers neither want nor need.

Dan Conway, incoming CEO of the Publishers Association, commented:

“The Publishers Association and our members have been making the case to the DfE for months that the current plans for the Curriculum Body will drastically reduce teacher autonomy and choice over the resources they use in the long term. Our members strongly supported the setting up of the Oak National Academy during a period of unprecedented strain on teachers during the pandemic and we want to see it find a new sustainable footing, but trying to turn it into a one-sized-fits-all state publisher isn’t the right way to do that. It will unfairly drive out the existing resources on the market. There are lots of other options available to DfE, including using the new Curriculum Body to target curriculum support at those who need it most, and we sincerely hope the new Secretary of State will explore those properly.”