Commenting on an ‘implementation plan’
published today by the Department for Education setting out next
steps on moving schools into academy trusts,
Kevin Courtney, Joint General
Secretary of the National Education
Union, said:
"Further academisation does not figure
on the list of priorities for anyone involved in education, who
have endured years of misconceived policies from a succession of
Conservative-led governments. This drive for yet more structural
change is therefore purely ideological and fully in
character.
"We welcome the recent adjudication by
the Office for Statistics Regulation on the threadbare evidence
base which the DfE has used to justify these plans. We are
pleased that the Department now accepts that direct comparisons
between LAs, MATs and SATs 'may be misleading'. This further
exposes the weakness of their argument for further
academisation.
"The DfE would make better use of its
time concentrating on the issues which parents, teachers, support
staff and school leaders are really concerned
about: increasing child poverty, persistent underfunding of
schools, and an increasing* recruitment and retention
crisis."
*At this stage in the student teacher
recruitment round applications are 6% down on 2019 - when
Government missed many of its
targets.
