A Gradgrind ethos is destroying the school system | Simon Jenkins

Children with special educational needs are being excluded to boost exam results. That’s not a healthy approach

There was a boy in my rural primary school who we used to tease as the village idiot. He was popular though, and we fiercely defended him if anyone bullied him. Our two teachers worked hard to fit him into the school and thus the community, and in this they succeeded. I think he was a happy boy. Yet today that school would risk penalties for lowering its test score; and accommodating...