More interference.

What is it with idiot politicians and the urge to meddle in education? Actually, that's a rhetorical question, I already know the answer to it. The reason UK politicians meddle so much in education is at part down to the fact that its an area the EU does not legislate (so our politicians can) and also where they can start to indoctrinate the young into thinking "their" way.
Yet all they've done is burdened good teachers and schools down with idiotic Britishness, sex education and now savings education.

Telegraph.

Children aged five will be given compulsory lessons on managing their finances from next year as part of a range of new measures for primary schools.
Ed Balls, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families has disclosed details of the new programme, which starts with lessons on how to save money in a piggy bank.
Mr Balls is also expected to announce a £50m fund for schools to intervene with extra lessons if six or seven-year-olds fall behind with basic Maths or English.
In a joint pledge with Gordon Brown to be unveiled on Monday, he will promise that, from September, schools will provide small group tuition or one-to-one help for “those furthest behind”.
He will also urge primary schools to teach at least one foreign language from September – a year ahead of the current deadline.
Lessons about current and savings accounts and how to budget will be compulsory from all school pupils from September 2011 as part of a new personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) curriculum.
Between the age of five and seven, they could be taught to identify different coins and notes, and how to save money.
From seven to 11, youngsters could learn about managing bank and savings accounts, and how to budget.

 Now bearing in mind that the UK has the lowest basic literacy rates for school leavers in Europe (and pretty much all the civilised world) You'd think that the education minister would be trying like hell to clear away the clutter that clogs up a schools curriculum as well as ridding the red tape that slows down progress by testing and recording everything the kids and teachers do.
But no, he keeps on adding the politically correct and/or stuff he thinks will win votes off parents.

Back to basics got a bit of a bad name under the Major government (for good reasons) but with schools, that's exactly what's needed. Infants should concentrate on the 3 r's and a program of streaming introduced so that if you can't read, write or do basic maths, then you can't progress to the next year.
Concentrate on the basics, then focus on teaching kids how to learn and research data and skills. Science, history and geography as well as a second language could then be introduced to a generation of kids who can find stuff out if they need to know or are simply just curious.

My greatest fear is that politicians, particularly those driven by dogma don't want a generation prepared to question what's actually going on or that is smart enough to find out either.

Hence the dumbing down and the overburdening of schools to the point where they can't teach anything well.