Tory education ministers claim to be decentralising power. They are doing the opposite
By Stephen Twigg
—Listening to Michael Gove can be discomfiting, even if he does not induce a soporific reaction as TV cameras caught him doing to a group of schoolchildren recently.
What makes progressives most uncomfortable is the false claim that he is simply continuing the reforms to education which Labour began in government. As someone who has consistently been a reformer, I know nothing could be further from the truth.
While Tory ministers claim to be decentralising power in our education system, they are doing the complete opposite. In fact, they have been quietly accumulating power in the centre.
All new schools established by this government – academies and free schools – are reliant on central government funding, are accountable to ministers and civil servants, and are monitored through seven-year finance agreements decided in Whitehall.
What might have been reasonable in a world of a few hundred academies seems absurd when there are thousands. At the same time, the Tories’ academy programme is focused on schools that are already doing well – those with ‘outstanding’ Ofsted ratings can convert automatically.
Greater autonomy is a good thing, but Labour’s academy programme aimed to improve standards at the worst-performing schools. Rather than spending time encouraging good schools to rename themselves, we brought in sponsors like charities and businesses to raise performance in the toughest neighbourhoods.
Local power is the key to addressing this democratic deficit in education. So Labour would return power to parents and communities in a number of ways.
First, we are looking at establishing a local network of schools commissioners who would provide a community voice to ensure that our schools system reflects local needs and priorities. This is in contrast to the government’s free schools programme which often has no relation to local need. So Katharine Birbalsingh had her plans for a secondary school approved in an area of south London which actually has a surplus of secondary provision but an urgent need for more primary places.
Second, we want to restore power to parents over admissions. The government is removing the right for parents to appeal to the schools adjudicator on the expansion of grammar schools. Many worry this could lead to a back door reintroduction of the 11-plus. A strong and effective admissions code is essential to a successful schools system.
Third, we must ensure policy priorities reflect what parents know matters most: not what is written on the sign outside a school, but what happens inside the classroom. So Labour will focus on raising the quality and status of the teaching profession, while improving discipline and raising attendance levels. We will look at best practice from schools in the UK as well as other countries such as Finland where teaching is seen as the zenith of professional achievement. We will also support any plans to support headteachers to remove consistently underperforming teachers.
Reforms are taking place in spite of, not because of, the government’s confused agenda. I have witnessed some innovative practices in schools of all types – whether community schools, free schools, studio schools, academies, cooperative and specialist schools.
Instead of simply attacking the education world as the ‘enemies of promise’, the education secretary should be supporting best practice. This can include working together to raise performance by extending the school day, reforming the school calendar, mixing pupils by stage and not age, and bringing flexibility to the curriculum.
These are innovations I have seen working in schools across England – we want to explore the case for extending them. School improvement requires a partnership between schools, parents and the government – both central and local. That is how we raised standards through the London Challenge when I was a minister. Yet the Tories’ ideological hostility to local government leads to Gove’s determination to ‘have a go’ at Labour councils. Underperformance by schools cannot be tolerated. But in my experience most local authorities share this view. I will work with local government to promote high standards.
So as we move towards a new education landscape in 2015, I am clear about what true reform means. Labour’s guiding principle will be evidence, not dogma. Only then will we raise standards for all.
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Stephen Twigg MP is the shadow secretary of state for education. He will deliver a speech to Progress members at 6pm on Tuesday 21 February in the Grimond Room, Portcullis House, House of Commons. To attend, email [email protected] or visit archive.progressonline.org.uk/events
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Labour still hostile towards teachers – no mention of debate with teachers or the NUT. Clearly better the Gove – but. then. the contents of my cat litter tray would be better than Gove.
for homework tonight “In what way would the contents of your cat litter tray be better than Gove ” (For English homework : “Sarcasm,metaphor and the enemy” )
The seriously damaging part of this, which Labour needs to wake up to, is that state schools are being branded as failing, in order to justify intervention and conversion into academies or to justify a new free school on the doorstep. OFSTED judgements are becoming increasingly political.
New academies don’t attract new funding, like they did under Labour. They simply remove a slice of central services funding from the local authority; services that schools have to buy back, or buy from private providers. The slice is bigger than it should be so every school that goes gets a bit more than their fair share. This means local authorities will go to the wall as providers of state education, to be replaced by businesses, community groups, parents, football clubs, banks and fee paying schools. This is a huge experiment on schools and children and it is happening so quickly that by the time Labour is back in power, the state system, the national education service, will have been broken up.
Labour needs to see that the Tories are doing the same thing to education that they are trying to do to health, and they need to oppose what is happening before it’s too late. Look to the USA where this process is already well advanced. Good schools get better and more exclusive. Bad schools just get worse until they close down.