04-20-2016, 07:45 PM
The Liberal Party has noted the increased pace of the government’s plans to convert every school in England into an academy before the next general election, and no-later than 2022.
This was not in their election manifesto and is without precedent. There has not been any evidence that academies perform better than local authority schools despite being funded directly by central government.
Rather than driving up standards and accountability in education this move will undermine parental influence, potentially reduce the ability of schools to work together and for councils to drive the education and employment agenda.
Furthermore the government appointed "schools commissioner" has been quoted as saying the process will be driven by "clusters of five to 10 schools led by an external sponsor or, as there are insufficient external sponsors, an outstanding school", which is understood to be in the first instance private companies, no necessary linked to the schools locality.
The effect of the change is that all schools, if the process goes through to its logical conclusion, will be totally controlled by the state, in effect State-controlled schools subcontracted to profit making private sector companies.
Any change to the basic administration of school in this country, which in the first instance should be accountable locally in line with Liberal policy, should be for the benefit of children‘s educations, not for private profit derived from ideological driven change.
This was not in their election manifesto and is without precedent. There has not been any evidence that academies perform better than local authority schools despite being funded directly by central government.
Rather than driving up standards and accountability in education this move will undermine parental influence, potentially reduce the ability of schools to work together and for councils to drive the education and employment agenda.
Furthermore the government appointed "schools commissioner" has been quoted as saying the process will be driven by "clusters of five to 10 schools led by an external sponsor or, as there are insufficient external sponsors, an outstanding school", which is understood to be in the first instance private companies, no necessary linked to the schools locality.
The effect of the change is that all schools, if the process goes through to its logical conclusion, will be totally controlled by the state, in effect State-controlled schools subcontracted to profit making private sector companies.
Any change to the basic administration of school in this country, which in the first instance should be accountable locally in line with Liberal policy, should be for the benefit of children‘s educations, not for private profit derived from ideological driven change.