Decades of compulsory state education - that promised to promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental, physical and academic development of a child in preparation for adult life - has failed far too many children, particularly national minorities and especially pupils of poor white working class background.
Out of frustration, the Tories are proposing that parents should be able to set up their own schools. This sounds unworkable and previous initiatives to empower parents have often failed, particularly parents of poor socio-economic backgrounds. Moreover nothing is being said about parents taking over failing schools, which should be far easier than setting up a new school (in close proximity to the failing state school, assuming surplus land is available).
When Ed Balls announced National Challenge in 2007, 40% of secondary schools in Birmingham were National Challenge i.e. achieving less than 30% for five GCSEs A*-C including English and Maths. This is a statistic that the local Tory-LibDem 'Progressive Partnership' kept very quiet about because not only is the figure one of the worst for size of Local Authority but it is under-attainment on an industrial scale. So much for the Birmingham Strategic Partnership’s primary aim of closing the gap in deprived areas! Out of the 120 councillors for Birmingham, how many have criticised this appalling statistic? Only Richard Burden MP (Lab, Northfield) has highlighted the plight of poor white working class children as they are the worst performers in Birmingham schools.
As Birmingham has the youngest population in Europe, it's not surprising that one-quarter of the city council's annual £3.3bn budget goes directly on schools (£840m for 2010-11, up from £821m). Another £584m is spent on Children, Young People and Families (excluding schools). Despite this enormous sum, earlier this year, the city's Head of School Effectiveness claimed that English As a Additional Language (EAL) and deprivation are reasons for under-attainment in some of its schools! With this mindset, the Local Authority really has lost the moral authority to run schools. Schools that have pupils from deprived backgrounds and/or EAL actually receive additional funding from central government to negate the disadvantages!
In 1988, the Tories under Margaret Thatcher introduced the Education Reform Act to strengthen the 1944 Education Act. Because of decades of underachievement and statutory breaches, the Tories:
- Strengthened existing legislation;
In 1997, Tony Blair came to power talking about education, education, education. The Labour government commissioned Capita to oversee the School Improvement Programme (SIP) where retired Head Teachers would visit schools once a term, ask challenging questions and offer expert advice. The School Improvement Partner's visit reports were supposed to be used as intelligence by Governing Bodies, Local Authorities and OFSTED to challenge school leadership, address issues, intervene in a timely manner and raise attainment.
But a decade later and out of frustration at the slow rate of progress which saw social mobility decrease, the Labour government introduced a more draconian layer of bureaucracy to address 'a culture of excuses' - the National Challenge Programme. So we now have several tiers responsible for raising attainment in schools:
- Local Authority
- Governing Body
- OFSTED
- School Improvement Partner (SIP) and finally
- National Challenge Adviser (NCA)
Even the former Soviet Union could not and would not have come up with such a farcical structure for state education. How many more layers do we need to add before it's recognised that state education is overdue for radical overhaul i.e. streamlining and robust and simpler forms of accountability?
Under National Challenge, a school that has received a 'Satisfactory' rating from OFSTED can now be issued with a Statutory Warning Notice to force it to become a Federation or Trust with a high performing school. The percentage of schools that have a Satisfactory OFSTED rating but are also National Challenge is quite extraordinary. In 2007, 59% of National Challenge Schools had a ‘Satisfactory’ OFSTED rating.
Comprehensive state education has failed because parents have been the weakest and least organised stakeholder in state education. Parents have been oblivious to the machinations of the local education establishment notwithstanding numerous government reforms and initiatives as the Local Authority will do its utmost to retain control or domination of Governing Bodies to protect their interests. Despite parent representation on Governing Bodies, how many Governing Bodies are actually chaired or led by parents?
Other pertinent questions that parents and taxpayers should be asking include: How many OFSTED Inspectors or School Improvement Partners are retired Head Teachers who themselves led schools that never achieved more than 30% for five GCSEs at A*-C including English and Maths? How many Governing Bodies have met their School Improvement Partner, National Challenge Adviser or seen their visit reports? How many National Challenge schools have a specialism when they are struggling with the basics, like English or Maths or both?
As long as parents are kept in the dark and disempowered, no initiative at reforming state education will ever work. The noble intentions of the 1944 Education Act, 1988 Education Reform Act and School Improvement Programme are testament to failure. If state education is to continue, new legislation needs to be introduced to make parents the majority stakeholders on Governing Bodies. Failing that, parents and community should take over the running of their local schools The Local Authority's role should be confined to simply ensuring schools operate within the prevailing legislative framework (admissions criteria, Special Educational Needs, Community Cohesion, Financial Audit, etc). Parents can perform a better job than the Local Authority because parents have a genuine vested interest – namely the best educational outcome for their children. The Local Authority simply cannot be trusted. But the Tory Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Families for Birmingham, Cllr.Less Lawrence will have none of it.
24th April 2010
