Commenting on today’s Department for Education figures detailing
the number of and cost of academy transfers and funding in
England, Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of
the National Education Union, said:
“It is nothing short of a scandal that over £31million of
taxpayers’ money has been spent by the Department shuffling 935
academy schools between one academy trust and another over the
last five years. This is a huge sum that could have been better
invested in our schools across England which are making staff
redundant and sending begging letters home to parents because
they simply don’t have the funding they need.
“The pupils and families at these rebrokered academies have been
badly let down by a Government that has sold them a lie about the
academy programme – claiming it is the only and the best way to
secure school improvement. Yet 67 academy schools were
transferred due to sponsor closure and 57 transfers were due to
intervention as a result of poor performance. In the remainder –
60% of transfers - the academy trust itself chose to walk away
from these schools. That is what happens when we have a market
place for education.
“All the evidence shows that schools that get into difficulty
improve faster and in a more sustainable way if they are
supported to do so by their local authority. Yet this Government
clings to its failed orthodoxy in refusing to allow schools that
have been failed by an academy trust to return to the oversight
provided by their local authority.
“The academy programme is an expensive shambles of a school
policy. It is on its last legs and the Government should put it
out of its misery once and for all.”
