Miriam Cates and Katherine Birbalsingh condemn Labour as ‘gender identity’ professor hired to rewrite curriculum

A professor who specialises in educational inequalities will be leading a shake-up of the national curriculum for schools in England, the government have announced.

Prof Becky Francis, the chief executive of learning charity the Education Endowment Foundation, has written dozens of books on how girls are often more negatively affected by gender clichés in school.

The Department for Education (DfE) said the review will “look closely at the key challenges to attainment for young people.”

Once the review is complete, all state schools will be required to teach the updated curriculum including academies which do not currently follow the national curriculum.

Katherine Birbalsingh, a teacher and education reform advocate, hit out at the new appointment on X stating: “This is worrying.

“@bphillipsonMP said she would ‘listen to the profession’.

“I was hopeful upon hearing this. But she hasn’t had time to do that yet.

“So why make such a radical move when she has not asked those of us enabling social mobility, how it is done?”

This is worrying. @bphillipsonMP said she would ‘listen to the profession’. I was hopeful upon hearing this.

But she hasn’t had time to do that yet.

So why make such a radical move when she has not asked those of us enabling social mobility, how it is done? https://t.co/Y8VKqeOMac

— Katharine Birbalsingh (@Miss_Snuffy) July 20, 2024

Some of the publications Francis has written over her 30-year career include books called Feminist Critique of Education, Feminism and The Schooling Scandal and Power plays: primary school children’s constructions of gender, power, and adult work.

Miriam Cates, a former secondary school science teacher and GB News presenter also spoke out on X stating: “I am seriously concerned about the appointment of someone to rewrite our school curriculum whose work has been so focussed on identity politics.

“Children need knowledge, skills & virtues – not a destructive focus on false concepts of gender, race & power.”

On Friday, the Dfe said the review would look at the “barriers” which hold back students with more complex needs and less advantaged children.

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Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, said that “for too long they have been held back by a curriculum and assessment system that fails to prepare enough of our children for work and for life.

“That is why this Government, alongside leading education experts, leaders and staff on the front line, will breathe new life into our outdated curriculum and assessment system.”

The review will also look at the exam system in England over concerns that school pupils are placed under too much pressure by being over-assessed.

The government said it would seek advice from experts, parents and teachers on how to reform the curriculum and seek “evolution, not revolution” of the current system.