The big problem in schools in England (the Scots have their own independent systems), is that everything is ruled by accountants, whether Government or local.
The cash which goes to a school is decided by accountants, not teachers. A lot of the cash given is based on "bums on seats" i.e. the number of children attending. This is, in turn, influenced by the "Performance" of the school which is decided by "League Tables".
If you have league tables, there has to be a means for placing the "winners".
A number of years back the government of the day introduced "Standard Assessment Tests", which were supposed to measure what stage of development the children had reached. The levels were based on an expected "average" level for an age group. They were supposed to help teachers to decide which pupils needed more help to reach the expected level.
The government "accountants" then decided to publish these test results, and so created the league tables so that parents try to move their kids to the schools with higher marks. These schools then get more cash and the lower schools are starved of money, resources and become more likely to "fail".
Schools and pupils now are not alowed to have children who perform to the expected average. Kids must all get higher than "average" no matter how clever or stupid they might be. As a result they are being force fed the "test passing" from an early age. The less able are not given the time they need to learn when they are ready to do so. As a result they do not learn anything, as the teacher is not allowed to backtrack, because the class has to cover X, Y, and Z, before some arbitrary deadline. The result is that a number of children know nothing but "how to fail" as they are always a number of steps behind where the rest of the class are, with no way to catch up.
Quite frankly the system is a total shambles, and is dragging our education system into a mire of disaffection and disruption.
Rant over.
The kids should be given a framework which allows them to succeed, not the current one which is based on unrealistic test scores, which automatically mean that a section will know nothing but failure for the whole of their school life.
As has been said - tinkering with labels does nothing to help. It just brings the tinkerers into public ridicule.
Quack!
GtD.