syllabus

In the late 1980s and early 1990s language teaching scholars (Long & Crookes, 1992; Nunan, 1988) began to question the efficiency of synthetic syllabuses which would break language into smaller units and then encourage learners to master it piece by piece.

2) Initially, synthetic syllabuses were equated with grammatical syllabuses.

The fact that many adults are functionally innumerate and thousands of children leave school unable to do basic sums ought to warn us that there is something radically wrong that making syllabuses easier and giving a C-grade at GCSE for 16 per cent cannot disguise.

To cater for a wider clientele the exams had, of necessity, to be easier than the O level, but simplistic syllabuses and sloppy standards soon palled for many well-qualified graduates from good universities, who got out of education pretty quickly, taking their skills into business and commerce.

The review of the syllabuses has also taken place and it is here that, for History at least, we have blown it.

Evaluating the new syllabuses was not part of my brief, but I grew increasingly uneasy about the narrowness of their specifications.