By Laurie Thraves, Education Researcher.
It’s been an uncertain month or so for the academies programme. There was some concern that, following Andrew Adonis’s departure from DCSF, we would see a shift in emphasis from academies to less controversial trust schools.
This predication has been borne out by events. Lord Adonis’s successor Jim Knight has recently indicated that he wants 70 underperforming schools to become academies. A further 70 will become trust schools. This does not match the ambition that all schools should enjoy the freedoms of academies. The overall trend, however, is still encouraging.
In last Sunday’s Independent, John Rentoul took particular heart from Knight’s appointment. Mr Rentoul congratulated Ed Balls for his commitment to modernisation. From a recent invitation for private companies to run pupil referral units, he dared to hope that some schools could eventually be run by “dynamic, well-managed companies such as Tesco” for profit.
The principal obstacle to the establishment of profit-making schools, according to Rentoul, is “anti-capitalist prejudice”. The case would undoubtedly need to be made that profit-making companies can work in the interests of children. A more daunting challenge, however, is overcoming the opposition of organisations who put teachers, not pupils, first.
It’s likely, for instance, that private companies would want to safeguard their investment by appointing business figures, not experienced teachers, at the top of schools. The restrictive nationally agreed pay and conditions document would also need to be revisited. These, and many other necessary reforms, are opposed by the main teaching unions.
The unions are a successful and powerful conservative force in education. On high-profile issues, such as performance-related pay, they have dominated the debate. The establishment of competing profit-making schools could make a major contribution to driving up standards. The Government must make a genuine commitment to change and find a willingness to make difficult arguments that challenge vested interests and the status-quo.
