TEACHERS unions on Monday condemned plans for a huge acceleration of the forced academisation of state education, with another 3,320 schools handed over to the privateers, if the Tories are elected in May.
Speaking at Kingsmead school, an academy in Enfield, north London, PM Cameron and Tory Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said that if they win the election thousands more schools will be forced into becoming academies and their headteachers will be ousted.
Cameron said that every secondary school assessed by Ofsted to be in the ‘requires improvement’ category would be forced to become an academy.
Morgan added: ‘This is not about saying heads would automatically be replaced.
‘Where a school doesn’t have the capacity to improve itself, and many do, or where they don’t have a plan that is going to lead to that school being rated good or outstanding, then one of the answers might be to get new leadership in.’
Almost a quarter of secondary schools, about 720 schools, are rated as ‘requiring improvement’, while about 16% of primary, more than 2,600 schools, would be affected by the proposals.
The label ‘requires improvement’ was introduced by Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw, replacing what had previously been the ‘satisfactory’ category.
Meanwhile, schools which are already academies and which are consigned to the ‘requires improvement’ category face being taken away from their existing academy chain and run by another.
Ofsted’s annual report shows more than a third of sponsored academies, both primary and secondary, are currently rated as ‘requires improvement’, a higher proportion than local authority schools.
‘Free schools’ which are in this rating could also be handed over to another academy group. The Confederation of British Industry bosses’ group enthusiastically backed the Tory plans to expand education privatisation.
‘We can no longer tolerate a long tail of poor achievement,’ said CBI director-general, John Cridland.
But the teachers unions and education professionals were scathing about the Tory policy.
Kevin Courtney, Deputy General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: ‘For David Cameron, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan and Schools Minister Nick Gibb to all be spouting about the benefits of academy status for schools deemed to be “requiring improvement” is extraordinary to say the least.
‘It really is time that this Emperor’s new clothes approach to education stopped. Last week we saw three reports from the influential Education Select Committee, the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee heavily criticising the academies and free schools programme and pointing to the lack of evidence that it leads to improved standards.
‘How much more evidence does the Government need before it admits that its academy and free school programme has failed?
‘It has failed on standards, failed on transparency, failed on accountability and failed to secure the trust of the public. It is a disgrace that the Government has allowed such a situation to develop and is turning a deaf ear to the serious concerns raised by such a wide range of people.
‘It should turn its attention to the growing problem of insufficient school places, the drop in the number of applicants to train as a teacher and the fact that the number of teachers leaving the profession each year is at a 10-year high and has increased by 25% since 2010.
‘It is very clear that the academies and free schools programme has nothing to do with standards but everything to do with a privatisation agenda.
‘One of the first steps for whoever forms the Government in May must be to bring back all schools into local authority oversight and fit for purpose accountability systems.’
Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said: ‘The announcement on the Conservatives’ continuing drive for academisation comes as no surprise.
‘Parents and the public will be deeply disappointed that the Conservatives are still clinging to a such a policy and the charade of using Ofsted to justify it when there is no evidence that it raises standards.
‘There is however a wealth of evidence to show that the policy has caused fragmentation of the service and has been instrumental in removing fundamental educational entitlements from children and young people including their right to a qualified teacher and to free access to a broad and balanced curriculum. Children and young people deserve better.’
Mary Bousted, leader of the ATL teachers’ union, criticised the plan as ‘self-serving, publicity-seeking nonsense’.
‘David Cameron’s Government has had five years to make its academy policy work. Last week’s report by the Education Select Committee and the Public Accounts Committee revealed that the academies policy has run aground.
‘There is no evidence that academies raise standards of education. There is evidence, however, that the Government is unable to account for academy spending.
‘Faced with these uncomfortable findings, David Cameron has decided to plough ahead, doing more of the same.
‘In this he is undoubtedly influenced by Michael Gove, the shadow Secretary of State for education, who has never let evidence get in the way of ideology and prejudice.
‘This is a Government which is bereft of ideas. When will politicians stop declaring war on schools?
‘It doesn’t help their image with parents, the public or with teachers who see their motives for what they are: self-serving, publicity seeking nonsense.’
Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), said: ‘In today’s speech David Cameron has chosen to do what it is easy – score points off teachers and play with structures – rather than what is difficult but effective – work with the profession to improve the quality of teaching.
‘This is the only thing that will reliably improve standards. Instead, the Prime Minister has chosen to declare war on schools, an act which will discourage talented people from joining the profession and from working in the most challenging areas.
‘This is counter-productive. It is also ill informed. It ignores the pressure already created for the “Requires Improvement” category.
‘Schools in this category have a limited time to improve before being closed down.
‘It ignores the evidence that structural change makes very little difference by itself: an inconvenient fact for an ideological approach to education focused on fragmentation and competition. We deserve better from our political leadership.’
• Commenting on the Public Accounts Committee report, School Oversight and Intervention, last Friday Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: ‘Barely a day seems to go by without another influential body producing a report that is critical of the Department for Education and its flagship education policy, the academies and free school programme.
‘The findings of the Public Accounts Committee in today’s report are frankly scandalous. That the Department for Education is “guilty” of lacking a strategic oversight of school autonomy, and has insufficient independent assessments of the effectiveness of academy sponsors in place is unacceptable.
‘It makes a mockery of the policies it has so relentlessly pursued in the last five years at the expense of pupils, parents, teachers and school leaders.
‘The NUT has been saying for some time that the only way out of this educational quagmire is for the Government to accept that its academy and free school programme has failed, that schools work best in collaboration, not isolation, and that oversight is best secured when all local schools are working together within a democratic local authority as part of a family of schools.’