From
Professor Ewan Anderson,
President of FICE-England and Wales / Caring for Children
Cheap Thinking?
Barely
has the ink dried on a previous log than a further instance of
Government thinking at the gallop has been exposed. It is tempting
to quote the late Victor Meldrew! As many of you will have read,
there has been a ministerial stocktaking meeting to consider an
expansion of academies.
The
model quoted was that of Indian entrepreneur, Sonny Varkey, who
runs some thirty private schools in the United Arab Emirates.
Apparently he would like to set up a network of such schools in
the United Kingdom with what are described as no frills but high
academic standards and fees at £5,000 per year. This is
approximately half the cost of the major independent day schools.
Before
considering this proposal in more detail, it is worth adding that
private firms have indicated that they would be prepared to finance
such schools, provided they had more say in how they are run.
They want to select pupils according to ability, to expel trouble-makers
and to exclude children with special educational needs since they
cost more money to teach. Surely even Margaret Thatcher in her
pomp would never have considered quite such extreme measures.
Where
would the children for these academies come from? The intention
is obviously to skim the most academically gifted from the state
schools although some would probably would come from the independent
sector. Some of the smaller independent schools might close, but
the main issue would be that the high performing state schools
would be denuded of many of their best pupils.
Furthermore,
any pupils causing problems in the academies would be promptly
expelled and the state schools would be expected to deal with
them. The question of special needs is particularly relevant since
in the north London comprehensive of which I am a Governor, many
of our special needs pupils are among the most popular in the
establishment. The idea of deliberately discriminating against
the full range of special educational needs, merely because they
may cost more money, is repellent. What about those with SEN who
are among the academically gifted? Would exceptions be made for
them?
The
issue of the academies is one of the few that could pose real
problems for both the independent and the state sector since both
would lose pupils. What about the teachers? Already there are
extreme shortages subject-wise and geographically in the state
sector and the number of teachers in training for some subjects
is minimal. Unless the idea is to bring teachers, like medical
staff, from the Indian sub-continent, presumably the teaching
staff of each academy would need to be attracted from British
schools. Again, this might affect both independent and maintained
schools.
What
about the cost? £5,000 a year is well beyond the pocket
of most ordinary people and the result would therefore be a two-tier
system. The direct grant system, removed by the Wilson Government
in the mid-1970s as being too divisive, was related to academic
ability. The new academies would be related not only to academic
ability but also the ability to pay.
Is
this proposal yet one more Government move to deflect attention
from the fact that its educational policies are in turmoil? Is
it yet one more example of education being used as a political
football in that the establishment of such academies would do
a great deal to ensure that would-be Tory voters think again?
Is it too contentious to suggest that Blair sees himself as the
direct heir of Thatcher?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ewan
Anderson (MA, MA, PhD, MEd, PhD, DPhil. Emeritus Professor University
of Durham, Honorary Professor Social Work Research and Development
Unit, University of York) a former housemaster and resident tutor,
holds a doctorate in residential education and established the
PGCE boarding/residential education courses at the universities
of Newcastle and Durham. He has been on most of the government
and non-governmental organisation committees concerned with residential
child care over the past 15 years, including the Wagner Development
Group and the Department of Health's Advisory Group on Caring
for Children Away from Home. He is a Fellow of Dartington and
a member of the Residential Forum and the Boarding Schools Association.
Professor Anderson is a member of the National Standards Committees
for Boarding Schools, Children's Homes, the Custodial Care sector
and of the TOPSS (Training Organisation for Personal Social Services)
Steering Group for National Occupational Standards for Registered
Managers in Residential Child Care.
