Education standards are being put at risk by repeated attempts to force schools to cure the country's biggest social problems, a minister warned today.
Nick Gibb, the Schools Minister, said the "first answer" to almost any challenge facing society -- such as obesity, teenage pregnancy and knife crime -- was to give schools a new duty to tackle the issue.
He said he was regularly presented with proposals "from one well-meaning group or another" to add "something socially desirable" to the curriculum.
But Mr Gibb warned that the move risked cutting the amount of time available for teaching traditional subjects -- the "best way out of poverty" for young people.
The comments come just a week after a major report into last year's riots in England suggested that schools should be required to "develop and publish their policies on building character".
It suggested that primary and secondary schools should undertake regular assessments of pupils' character, in a move likely to cover issues such as self-confidence, honesty and sense of right and wrong.
But addressing the Association of Teachers and Lecturers annual conference in Manchester, Mr Gibb said: "Today it seems that the first answer of many to almost any problem in society is to give a duty to schools to tackle it -- be it obesity, teenage pregnancy, or knife crime.
"It feels like every other week I am presented with proposals from one well-meaning group or another to add something socially desirable to the curriculum.
"I see my role as resisting those pressures so that schools can concentrate on educating young people and teachers can focus on teaching."
The last Government was repeatedly criticised for introducing a series of new duties for English state schools.
This included compulsory lessons in citizenship, a new onus on schools to promote community cohesion, nutritional standards for food and an overhaul of the curriculum covering personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) lessons.
The issue being, of course, how to assimilate the children of immigrants - and how to maintain and restore civic values in general. That was a major reason for establishing public schools in the first place, but has been hijacked to change rather than reinforce society.
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It suggested that primary and secondary schools should undertake regular assessments of pupils' character, in a move likely to cover issues such as self-confidence, honesty and sense of right and wrong.
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That was a major reason for establishing public schools in the first place, but has been hijacked to change hijack rather than reinforce traditional society.
American intelligence has begun "cutting back" on material provided to British agencies over fears information could be compromised in UK courts, Kenneth Clarke has said.
US security services had become "extremely cautious" when dealing with Britain on the basis that shared national secrets risked being made public in open hearings.
The Justice Secretary revealed US security services had become "extremely cautious" when dealing with Britain on the basis that shared national secrets risked being made public in open hearings.
Mr Clarke made his comments following continued criticism over controversial plans by the Coalition government to hold court cases and inquests behind closed doors.
A cross-party group of peers and MPs has today attacked his proposals for so-called secret justice claiming the system would be "inherently unfair" and was based on "spurious assertions".
Speaking this morning on the BBC's Today programme, Mr Clarke refuted the suggestion that plans to allow spies to give evidence in camera to protect national security was the result of "immense American pressure" being exerted.
However, he agreed that a decision to disclose US intelligence during the case of UK resident Binyam Mohamed had led to a lessening of cooperation between the two countries. In 2008 Mr Mohamed took the British government to court to secure the release of documents relating to his detention in Guantanamo Bay prison between 2004 and 2009.
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And foreign intelligence agencies are holding back on information shared with the US over fears information could be compromised in some future issue of Foreign Policy magazine.
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Read, TOO MANY POLITICAL-LEGAL PROTECTIONS = EMPOWERMENT OF SHARIA IN BRITAIN.
Muslims in Germany are using the regular/normal democratic electoral process to formally rename their areas of German Cities into Arabic; while pro-Islamist Brit Muslims are forming their own "Moral Police" + Muslim-only "Courts" as iff Sharia was already in place, AKA IGNORING WHITEHALL.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
American intelligence has begun "cutting back" on material provided to British agencies over fears information could be compromised in UK courts, Kenneth Clarke has said. 
