The National Curriculum, at least in England, is a means by which the Government controls what is taught in schools. This had led to a decline in the quality and variety of teaching. As an example, my brother is dyslexic, and incapable of learning any foreign language. He refused to take GCSE German, but because his school was obliged to submit him for some foreign language exam at that level, he was denied the opportunity to replace that course with something he might have found more useful and accessible. Other demonic creations of the NC are the general science GCSE, which guarantees that 16-year-olds have no clue about any science in any depth, nationally recommended texts, so that everyone knows Macbeth but no-one knows Coriolanus, and the decline of esoterica such as Latin.