THE big shake-up of the primary school curriculum announced today to make more time for basics is long overdue.

For barely more than half today's 11-year-olds can read or do sums properly.

It may be that the government's back-to-basics drive, giving more room in the timetable to the Three Rs, will, as some teachers complain, be at the expense of lessons in subjects like history and geography.

But without a proper learning foundation, children cannot gain a "whole" education anyway.

The government is right to stress where action is most needed.

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