Learn English London

The drive to improve literacy in schools has killed the subject of English and left a generation of children unable to speak properly, a teachers’ leader warned today. 

According to Mary Bousted, the General Secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, pupils no longer read whole books or write in class for pleasure, but instead analyse “extracts” for tests.  She said ”My subject, English, is no more.  It has been replaced by a newcomer - literacy - which as a subject is based on the naming of parts.  Children rarely read whole books.  They read parts of books - extracts.”

Dr Bousted complained that children had lost the chance to learn how to talk and listen to others under the Government’s literacy strategy.  There is wider growing concern among authors over the erosion of literature studies and employers have complained about school-leavers’ weak communication skills.  For example, pupils are no longer required to study whole Shakespeare plays in detail, but can rely on revising sections from extracted scenes. 

Inspectors have warned that poetry is a dying subject in too many schools, while Michael Rosen, the Children’s Laureate, has criticised the Government for failing to promote reading for fun.