COUNCIL, 15TH MARCH 1960 PAPER TEE SCHOOL CURRICULUM - AN EMERGING NATTONAL FRAMEWORK? Since Mr James Callaghan's Ruskin, speech of October 1976 there has beon a spate of publications concerned with the school curriculum from the DES and from HM Inspectorate - surveys, discussion papers, proposals, While it is important to recognise that these publications are not the product of a single planned programme carefully designed to lead up to a Government decision on e curriculun framework (all but the most recent of the HMI publications listed below result from studies begun before Mr Callaghan's political initiative) the effect has been to place the school curriculum firmly on the national political agenia. The DES, prompted by the then Prine Minister, published Educating our Childen Four Subjects for Debate (one of the subjects being the School Curriculum 5 to 16), organised a series of regional conferences and then produced a Green Paner, Egucation in Schools: A Consultative Document, in July 1977. Ciroular 14/77 veninded IBAs of their responsibilities for the curriculum and asked for “systematic information about curricular arrengenents"; @ summary of the IEA responses to that circular was published in Novenber 1979. Most recently the TES has put forward A Framework for the School Curriculum (January 1960) with the intention of "seeking a national consensus on a desirable framework for the school curriculum". The document sets out preliminary views for discussion with Anterested parties which will be followed later this year by a revised version “providing guidance for local education authorities, schools and teachers". EM Inspectorate has also been active with major surveys of Primary and Secondary (years 4 and 5) Education in wmgland, “working papers" on Curriculum 11-26 and, published in conjunction with the DES Framework proposels, A View of the Qurriculs