On 31 March, the National
Education Union challenged the
Department for Education on its questionable evidence base for a
drive towards pushing schools into joining multi-academy trusts
(MATs). Our analysis documents - The Government’s flawed case for a fully trust-led
system, and
What is the evidence for forcing
schools into multi-academy
trusts? - exposed the
very poor justification behind these
plans.
On 1 April, the NEU wrote to the
Office for Statistics Regulation to highlight these flaws and ask
for an adjudication on the Department for Education's handling
and presentation of data.
The Office for
Statistics Regulation has today agreed with the NEU’s
complaint about the Government’s evidence document. The OSR
accepted that the NEU's report showed that the DfE evidence was
misleading because of:
-
a lack of transparency about how the
statistics had been drawn up;
-
the statistics presented were of a
poor quality;
-
that they could not be easily
replicated; and
-
that the statistics were not
reported independently of the White
Paper.
Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General
Secretary of the National Education
Union, said: “The
Government claims that its plan to force all schools to join a
multi-academy trust is evidence led. However, after months of
preparation the document it came up with was so flawed that the
Office for Statistics Regulation have agreed with the NEU’s
complaint that the report is misleading. This shows that there is
no evidence that forcing all schools to join a multi-academy
trust will improve schools. It is time for to withdraw his plan, which
is now exposed as wholly ideological, and get back to what
teachers and parents actually want the Government to focus
on. The White Paper as it stands has nothing to say on the most
urgent matters facing education."
Editor’s
Note
NEU Analysis of DfE document, 31
March:
https://neu.org.uk/media/20736/view
NEU letter to OSR, 1
April:
https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/correspondence/dr-mary-bousted-and-kevin-courtney-to-ed-humpherson-transparency-of-trust-led-school-system-evidence-for-education-white-paper/
OSR response to NEU complaint, 18
May:
https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/correspondence/ed-humpherson-to-dr-mary-bousted-and-kevin-courtney-transparency-of-trust-led-school-system-evidence-for-education-white-paper/
OSR letter to the DfE, 18
May:
https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/correspondence/ed-humpherson-to-neil-mcivor-transparency-of-trust-led-school-system-evidence-for-education-white-paper/
