Commenting on the Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan’s
announcement during the Education Select Committee that the
Schools Bill will not be going ahead, Kevin Courtney,
Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union,
said:
“The fact that the Schools Bill will not progress through
Parliament is a relief as it has been widely discredited. The
Bill focused on the wrong priorities, if we want school
improvement or educational quality and the Government must accept
that maintained schools are here to stay.
‘The NEU successfully disputed the evidence that the Government
produced with its case for forcing every school to join a trust.
The NEU’s challenge to the DFE data was supported by the Office
for Statistics Regulation*. The Bill did not address the
pressing challenges which both maintained schools and academy
schools face. The urgent challenges are recruitment and retention
of teachers, school funding, pay, and the unequal learning gaps
created by Covid.
‘The Bill missed the opportunity to resolve the problems created
through the fragmentation if the system, such as the lack of
voice and choice for schools after they have joined a Trust. This
is the second time the DFE have been prevented from trying to
over-rule local communities en masse and lever forced conversions
on them. As a result of the abandonment of this misguided Bill,
leaders and schools can focus on collaboration, retaining staff
and outcomes for their students, rather than structures and DFE
dogma. Voluntary aided and community schools do not have to
convert to academy status. Single-academy trust schools do not
need to join a multi-academy trust. Multi-academy trusts do not
have to grow to contain a magic number of schools directed by
DFE.
‘The Government must recognise that structural change is not what
schools and communities want and should also back away from the
counter-productive pressure which it is putting on schools,
predominantly those in poorer communities.
‘Parents and local councillors want an education system which is
well-funded, responsive to local needs and which works for their
local context, without pressure to join a mega-trust. Now that it
has dropped the Schools Bill, Government has the opportunity to
focus on the actual priorities and the real challenges around
modernising assessment, identifying funding and addressing
teacher retention”.
ENDS
EDITORS’ NOTE
Response to NEU challenge from Office for Statistics Regulation
https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/correspondence/ed-humpherson-to-neil-mcivor-transparency-of-trust-led-school-system-evidence-for-education-white-paper/
