Drastic changes for schools
WORKERS, NOV 2005 ISSUE
The latest government education white paper proposes drastic changes to the service. The power of local councils would be severely curtailed: they would no longer be providers of education, but commissioners. Local authorities will have to provide a "diversity of choice". They will be barred from objecting to more popular schools expanding at the expense of other local schools. Disputes over school admission policies would be handled solely by adjudicators who would not be accountable to local people. Education secretary Kelly's brief is to introduce a diversity of suppliers, supposedly competing against each other for pupils.
Popular schools would be given a fast track to expand with as little as three months' notice. Schools funded directly by central government, but independent of local authorities and with greater curriculum freedom, are set to return – Labour's version of Tory grant-maintained schools.
The government has already stated that schools will be given freedom to own their own land, manage their assets, employ staff and form links with private sector providers by a vote of either the governors or parents themselves. Secondary schools, as well as city academies, should form partnerships with business and charities. The government expects to reach 200 city academies by 2010, even though their performance is generally patchy and poor in some notable cases.
Education workers, parents and students want good schools in all areas, properly financed with fully qualified staff, not a Dutch auction between privateers. A centrally funded, locally accountable system is under ever-increasing threat. This White Paper would drive a coach and horses through the government's own national curriculum and destroy national pay agreements for teachers and school staff – a process started by the government's Workforce Remodelling programme.
We pay for our schools; private companies (including religious charities and rail companies) have no right to plunder our money. We have a right to say how our money is spent. Business has no business in education.