Who gets a say when changes are made to the educational system?

[Bloodyfriendshipgroups]

I was reading some commentary about GCSE muusic which is changing its syllabus. The commentator essentially said that the people who get to make the changes don't listen to the people who know what changes ought to be made.

I know there are consultations, but who gets to influence the terms of reference for these? How does the process work?

Carol Vorderman led a report into maths education, commissioned by the Tories and signed off by Michael Gove. Despite being a Tory paper it was well received by maths teachers who agreed with many of its recommendations, especially the one about making maths a double GCSE with one focusing on what employers want and the other on algebra etc as preparation for A-level.

What did we get? A Gove-level which is much harder than current GCSE and is going to fail the lower ability students. The only concession I can see that has been made is that maths will retain a foundation and higher tier, unlike other subjects where all students will sit the same exam.

Incidentally, there was a double maths GCSE qualification already being piloted and which seemed to be going quite well. However, it was Labour that started the pilot so the thought was that the whole thing was tainted and the Tories couldn't possibly go ahead with it.

For those who are interested, this blog was written by a teacher who participated in the history consultation: jonnywalkerteaching.wordpress.com/2014/10/28/dfe-history-consultation/