Government's Education Policy Is Self-Defeating, Academics Warn

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The drive to reform Britain's education system, with frequent shifts in policy and the added burden of targets, is self-defeating and "working against the Government's own intentions", leading academics have warned ministers.

In a letter to today's Independent, four leading educationalists write: "We have come independently to the same conclusion, namely that government policy is no longer the solution to the difficulties we face but our greatest problem."

The four are Frank Coffield and Stephen Ball, both professors at the University of London's Institute of Education, Professor Richard Taylor, director of continuing education and lifelong learning at Cambridge …