Test Scores Are Plummeting Across Europe. England Held the Line.

Summary

International test-score trends

The host discusses PISA, an international assessment of 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics, and science. She says recent results show broad declines across many countries, including France, Australia, Finland, Norway, and the United States. She cites an OECD-wide comparison suggesting that, in mathematics and reading, 15-year-olds are nearly a year behind students tested in 2018.

England appears to be an exception: its students rank among the top ten in each subject, and the most disadvantaged quarter reportedly score above the average student in some other European countries.

The host adds an important qualification: England’s own scores have mostly held steady since 2006. Its improved relative position reflects declines in other countries more than a major rise in England’s performance. She considers English schools to still need improvement.

Why the host says the decline is happening

• COVID-related school closures: The host accepts that closures may have worsened outcomes but argues they cannot explain the entire international decline. She notes that some declines began before the pandemic and contrasts England’s post-2018 results with Sweden’s.
• Education spending: She argues that spending alone does not explain performance, citing countries that spend more but score lower and contrasting the UK’s nations, which have similar funding but different results.
• Two proposed major factors:
  1. Educational technology: She argues that widespread classroom screen use and replacing textbooks with devices have harmed learning. She points to Nordic countries that adopted classroom technology and later saw scores fall, while acknowledging that this is her interpretation of the trend.
  2. Educational values and practice: She criticizes progressive approaches that emphasize student-led activity over direct teaching, impose few consequences for misbehavior, and place less emphasis on teacher authority and academic knowledge.

The case for Michael Gove’s reforms

The host presents England’s reforms under education secretary Michael Gove, supported by schools minister Nick Gibb, as a reason England avoided the sharper declines seen elsewhere. She contrasts them with approaches that some teachers and commentators had advocated at the time.

The reforms she describes include:

• A more knowledge-rich, traditional curriculum: This added harder classical texts and more historical content, increased expectations in subjects such as mathematics, and introduced or expanded subjects such as Latin. It also emphasized memorizing important knowledge, poems, and literature so pupils could draw on them later for deeper thinking.
• More rigorous assessment: This reduced reliance on coursework, which the host says could be vulnerable to cheating, and placed greater emphasis on demanding exams that tested what students knew. It also introduced phonics screening to check whether young children could identify letter sounds and use them to decode words.
• Greater teacher authority: This removed the requirement to give 24 hours’ notice before detention, allowing same-day consequences, and allowed teachers to search pupils’ bags when they suspected a serious safety risk.
• More autonomy and accountability for schools: This expanded academies and free schools—state-funded schools outside direct local-council control—and gave school leaders more freedom over curriculum, staffing, and some qualifications. Heads and governing bodies became more directly responsible for school decisions and results.
• A different school-performance measure: This introduced Progress 8, which the host explains as judging schools partly by how much pupils improve across eight subjects, rather than only by their final attainment. She argues that this helps identify schools that make strong progress with pupils who start behind.

The host says these freedoms allowed some schools to adopt traditional teaching, strict rules, and less use of technology, and that exam results and PISA outcomes support those choices. She contrasts England’s approach with Wales and Scotland, which she describes as relying more on local-authority control, fewer tests, and less emphasis on a knowledge-rich curriculum. She cites later reports of weaker results in those nations.

Overall argument

The host’s central point is that England has not become an outstanding system; rather, reforms helped it maintain performance while many comparison countries fell. She argues that Gove’s reforms gave schools room to move away from ineffective practices and that some headteachers used this freedom to improve outcomes.

She credits Gove, Gibb, other policymakers, and school leaders for pursuing reforms despite strong criticism. She says these changes gave more children access to rigorous academic content previously associated with privileged education.

She also argues that negative cultural influences—such as weak respect for teachers, excessive screen use, and progressive teaching methods—remain problems in English schools and homes.

Advice offered in the closing Q&A

For a foundation program for children aged three to five, the host recommends:

• Teach counting gradually: begin with small numbers, build toward counting to 100, and then practise counting in twos, threes, fours, and other sequences.
• Incorporate counting into everyday life, such as counting objects, food, or cars.
• Read aloud regularly and follow the words with a finger as you read.
• Keep age-appropriate books available for young children, and reread rhyming books so children can learn and join in.
• Make reading a warm, shared activity that children associate with time and connection with their parents.

She also encourages listeners to share the podcast and discuss how school, online life, and family choices affect children.

Speakers and sources featured

• Katharine Birbalsingh — host and principal speaker.
• Peter Hitchens — quoted in an archival panel segment, arguing for teaching poetry, literature, music, and national history.
• Michael Gove — discussed extensively as the former education secretary behind the reforms; no clearly identifiable direct speech from him is included in the subtitles.
• Nick Gibb and Andrew Adonis — named by the host in connection with education reforms.
• Unnamed union leader — performs a parody song criticizing Gove.
• Unnamed teachers and political panelists — comment on traditional learning, poetry, memorization, and Gove’s reforms.
• Unnamed teacher and child in a phonics demonstration — illustrate sounding out words.
• Unnamed academy/free-school representative — explains schools’ freedoms over curriculum, staffing, and qualifications.
• Unnamed parents and campaigners — appear in a report opposing a school’s conversion to academy status.
• Unnamed reporters, news presenters, and education commentators — provide clips about test results and education in England, Scotland, Wales, France, Australia, Finland, and the United States.
• Unnamed early-years teacher and audience members — represented through the closing Q&A questions.