A disastrous school reform program is a solution in search of a problem

A long time ago I was involved in the battle to help the school get out of council control and become an academy. It comes shortly after Michael Gove, as education secretary, continued the reforms of his Labor predecessors to give more choice and freedom to the public education sector.

The local council faced the loss of money and jobs allegedly needed to oversee the only school under its control, launched a campaign of such fierce resistance that the police found themselves embroiled in a saga that included allegations of espionage, intimidation and corruption.

It concerned one school in one (tiny) unitary authority. I am pleased to say that the school in question, along with thousands of others across the country, has successfully taken advantage of Gove’s reforms and gained academy status, but the resistance shown by the bureaucratic class has been tremendous and now, almost 15 years on, the battle could begin again thanks to the ill-informed, ideological and harmful Child Welfare and Schools Bill.

The bill would strip academies of many freedoms that have helped raise standards at many English schools in recent years, such as the ability to set pay and change the curriculum. I refer to English schools because these freedoms were never accepted in Wales and Scotland, where devolved administrations followed an old-fashioned and centralized approach to education.

The results of the two different approaches are clear, as Conservative MP Neil O’Brien made clear in The Times yesterday: “between 2009 and 2022, England rose from 21st to 7th in the international Pisa Mathematics Education Table, while Wales rose from 29th to 27th”. In Scotland, “the introduction of the ironically named but disastrous Curriculum for Excellence has been one of the reasons for the sharp decline of Scottish schools in the international league tables”.

Sir Daniel Moynihanchief executive of the Federation of Harris Academy Schools, spoke on behalf of many in the sector yesterday in questioning the wisdom and rationale of Labour’s forthcoming changes, telling the BBC that before joining his federation many of his 55 schools were “failing in the most deprived areas of the capital with children, who are in a disadvantageous situation, low-income children”. Today, “most of these schools are outstanding.” He added: “We have been able to achieve this because of the freedoms that the academic powers have given us.”

Now Labor is about to dismantle one of the most successful public policy initiatives of the last 30 years and they should be ashamed of themselves.

These proposals are nothing more than problem solving designed with trade unions and local councils in mind, not children’s interests.