THE TORY government has been forced to make a fundamental retreat: their plans to force all of England’s schools to become academies have been abandoned.
The government’s plans have been defeated after head teachers and teachers threatened strike action. Teachers, head teachers, education experts and both Labour and Tory MPs and councillors had voiced their opposition to the plan to force all schools into academy status.
Meanwhile, the education of over 2,000 young people has been thrown into disarray by the collapse of 22 free schools, university technical colleges and studio schools, teachers union, NUT warned yesterday.
Announcing the opening of these new types of school, former Education Secretary Michael Gove said the government had ‘encouraged the blossoming of a rich, diverse ecosystem’ in education. Yet five free schools, four university technical colleges and 13 studio schools have closed, or are scheduled to close, since 2013 because they failed to attract sufficient numbers of pupils and/or had poor academic results.
The closures have disrupted the education of a total of 2,318 pupils who were studying at the schools when they closed or when the closure was announced. One parent at the Midland Studio College in Hinckley said the school has ‘ruined’ the career prospects of its pupils. She added: ‘My son’s confidence has been completely shattered by it all and he will no longer be able to go to university as they have not delivered enough hours of suitable teaching.’
The schools cost the taxpayer at least £60.7 million in pre-opening, set-up and capital costs. This could have provided 4,403 new school places had the equivalent sum been given to local authorities to provide new school places in their area.
Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: ‘At a time when we are experiencing probably the worst-ever shortage of school places and yet local authorities are not allowed in law to directly provide new school places for local children, the failure of these government-promoted new schools really is an utter disgrace.
‘The government is continuing to play politics with young people’s education. It is young people and their families who suffer when schools close as we have tragically seen in the case of these 2,318 students who have been so badly let down by the government.’
Meanwhile, an academy chain called ATT has announced hundreds of job cuts. Trade union Unison has slammed the chain as ‘a lesson in how not to manage schools’. The Academies Transformation Trust (ATT) announced ‘jobs cuts’ and a ‘major restructuring’ across its secondary and primary schools in the East and West Midlands, and the East of England on Thursday.
Unison head of education Jon Richards said: ‘This decision has come as a bolt from the blue, and will have left hundreds of staff feeling shocked and disoriented. The severe cuts of £500,000 a year mean school support staff will either lose their jobs, or have to apply for new ones, some on much less pay.’
