The Labour and Conservative parties have both supported the academies programme as the key driver of educational reform. The Liberal Democrats, in contrast, have been more critical towards academies, ambivalent about their ability to select 10 per cent of pupils by aptitude and their status as a programme of central government rather than of local authorities.
But the Party appears to be revising its position. In his key speech on public sector reform, on 12th January, Nick Clegg said that there is “nothing wrong with allowing schools to exist outside direct daily local government management – as long as they are under local government oversight”.
A new report published by the independent think tank Reform argues that the current academies programme is the best available model for facilitating educational reform. Richard Tice, Chair of Governors at Northampton Academy and author of the report, shows that much greater freedom of management under the academy model has transformed the school leadership’s ability and willingness to take decisions. Specific improvements have included changes to the teaching and management staff and several changes to discipline policy including a new off-site centre for excluded pupils.
As a result a badly underperforming school is quickly improving, though major challenges remain. GCSE performance has significantly improved since the new management has taken over, truancy has fallen by a third, teaching absenteeism is much reduced and the school receives three applications for every place.
Richard’s practical experiences thus point to a key conclusion – it is the management freedom, not the new buildings, which have transformed the fortunes of this failing school. He therefore calls for the academy principle of freedom of management to be rolled out across the state sector, not the capital investment of the academy programme. With very little cost, all schools would be given the opportunity to radically improve.
There is thus significant opportunity for the Liberal Democrats to lead calls for education reform. Nick Clegg has stated: “I want us to look at establishing a new liberal model of schools that are non-selective, under local government strategic oversight but not run by the council, and free to innovate to drive up standards for all our children.” This is clearly in line with the proposals of the Reform research and could go far further than the Government’s target for 400 academies after 2010.
There are issues that need to be addressed before the academy model can be rolled out. Independent appeals panels on exclusions should be removed and the role of the National Curriculum, performance tables and tests need to be reduced. Liberal Democrats should not shy away from addressing issues that go deep into the culture of the education system, in particular the role of the teaching unions. Unions should change their approach to academies and particularly to the ability to vary teachers’ pay and conditions locally in the interests of their members and ultimately the students they teach. By supporting the academy model, unions can transform their role from a blocker of reform to a positive driver of change.
The Reform report shows that there is already a model that the Liberal Democrats can build upon to achieve their vision of “Free Schools”. Existing academies have already demonstrated that positive steps can be taken for effective leadership, improvement in teaching standards and better discipline. With the further reforms that Richard Tice proposes, these measures could transform state education in England.
* Elizabeth Truss is Reform’s Deputy Director and Laura Kounine is Reform’s Education and Crime Research Officer.
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7 Comments
Our opposition to Academies has always been on the solid liberal grounds of opposing selection and the handing over of public assets to private companies in exhange for their promise (seldom realised) to contribute a fraction of the total investment costs – PFI by any other name.
If Academies were 100% non-selective (so by definition non-faith based), with their assets leased, not gifted, to the private operators and with arms-length (and ultimate) local democratic oversight, I’m sure this party wouldn’t have a problem with them.
Infact there’s a genuine liberal model for a lot of other public services there too.
I’m much less interested in how education is delivered than in ensuring that every child who enters the educational system comes out of it feeling a sense of achievement and having had abilities developed that will enable them to play a valuable role in society. That manifestly does not happen with today’s system, and this failure is down to the one size fits all national curriculum. I have watched as my daughter’s less academic contemporaries have gone from being fresh-faced little kids in year 7 to morose drink and drug sodden failures in year 11 because the system they have been through is rubbish: they themselves are great people who have had their self-esteem shot to bits by being forced to do things they were not capable of doing, and who have been rubbished for their lack of ability. Please note: I am not blaming the teachers (although there were some who should not have been let loose anywhere near children) – they have to implement a stupid system which alienates at least half the kids they are trying to teach so that every lesson becomes a struggle to keep the attention of those who don’t want to be in it. We desperately need a better way of doing things, and the Tomlinson Report pointed the way – and was immediately binned by New Labour, although supported by our party.
Should we trust or Miss Truss(t) advice from former Conservative party candidates.
I am sure advice is independent and of course we should encourage others to contribute to our debates.
what was my point?
Most secondary schools and local authorities have the resources to do all these things already. Do they have the will?
The Clegg proposals have the virtue of recognising that education must remain a matter for local democracy, not central government. Where the party needs to give some thought is to how it revives the ability of good local councils to drive up standards. Whatever the ownership of schools, they need to remain accountable locally – academies are not and I believe some even handpick their parent governors.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t good lessons to be learnt here about leadership, good practice and setting the right targets. But extending the academies programme would necessarily mean that central government got more and more involved in micro-managing education through the academies quango.
Lordy, that’s not the same Liz Truss, is it? The one who used to be one of ours (as a student) before going over to the dark side …?
I will certainly have a look at the report, but is the Chairman of the governors of an Academy, the best person to say whether they are good or bad?
Can anyone point to any independent academics who have done work on this?
The same Miss Truss – love the claims of non political nature of Reform – just google them and look at the Directors Biogs (Con, Tory, Con…)