Data to be released next week looks set to reignite questions over Labour's education policy.
Data to be released next week looks set to reignite questions over Labour’s education policy
The ongoing debate over Free Schools has once again been fired up by claims of radicalisation in Birmingham. This comes hot on the heels of the government finally beginning to act to ban the teaching of creationism.
However the creation debate pans out, the general point remains – since free achools are allowed wide scope to set their own curriculum, this opens the door to education being more about what parents (or certain groups) want children to know (or what they do not want them to know), rather than what the collective would deem appropriate.
For Labour – a party of the masses – this is ideologically difficult.
There have also been broader issues that have caused rifts in the coalition parties, one being the employment of unqualified teachers. While some have argued that free schools allow for those who are great at a subject to teach it without red tape getting in the way, most see it as a lowering of standards, and a basic failure of providing education. For many, it undermines the education profession.
The facts are stark. Ofsted inspections are being failed at three times the normal rate by free schools, with a smaller percentage attaining a good or outstanding rating compared to state schools. If it was an issue of quality then the creation of free schools has been found wanting, if it is an issue of filling a gap of provision then it has also not achieved that either.
Parliamentary papers showed that in 2012 an NUT report argued that “many of the existing 24 free schools or those that are due to open later this year will have a negative impact on existing good or outstanding local schools.” Also that “NUT’s request for details of impact assessments made by the education secretary had been turned down by the DFE”
If this is true, then free schools are actually hampering state schools in areas that had been doing well. As well as this, the refusal to show the impact assessments may point to an awareness that free schools are not having a positive effect. And yet in September 2014 there will be 102 new free schools being opened, despite the events that have happened and despite public feeling.
Even before some of the more recent issues became known, public support for free schools had been dropping. In October 2013, YouGov released data that showed opposition to free schools had gone up to 47 per cent, and support for them had dropped to 27 per cent. The data also showed that, across the political spectrum, all four main parties had at least 65 per cent believing that only those that are formally qualified should be able to teach. The parties also did not drop below 56 per cent in their support for all schools following the national curriculum.
Labour needs to bear such feeling in mind. The Labour History Research Unit at Anglia Ruskin University has spent the past month surveying over 400 Labour councillors in marginal constituencies ahead of the next election. This data, to be released in full next week, shows that over 50 per cent of those surveyed support scrapping free schools, or at least putting them under the control of the Local Education Authority.
Almost a third (30 per cent) would consent to their retention, but demand further regulation.
And equally, when offered a choice of a range of pledges from committing to scrap the bedroom tax to freezing energy bills, precisely zero Labour councillors plumped for the current line on free schools as the most obvious vote winner for Labour on their patch.
And it’s arguably little wonder. Labour does not yet seem to have a clear policy on free schools, other than their general disapproval of instances of obvious malpractice.
With widespread feeling amongst the public against free schools, and the same amongst Labour councillors, it would seem that taking a decisive stance against them could prove not just a vote winner, but also something that would help unite the majority of the party. The data suggests action is necessary.
Josh Younespour is a history student at Anglia Ruskin University and research assistant at the Labour History Research Unit (LHRU). He writes in a personal capacity. The LHRU will release full data from a survey of Labour councillors next week.
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14 Responses to “What should Labour be saying on free schools?”
Leon Wolfeson
“diverse learning needs (SEN, EAL etc)”
Oh dear. Yea, I see where you’re coming from, as if they don’t exist in Finland.
I’ll just ignore your views on certain types of people and keep pushing for rational reform.
Robin Thorpe
Rational reform requires evidence. I asked if you had any evidence against streaming and you referred me to an education system that operates in an entirely different way. The most significant feature of which is a focus on creativity reinforced by highly educated teachers and no formal exams. I gave you first hand experience of the benefits of streaming which you don’t even debate with just imply I have some form of prejudice because I stated that larger urban schools have a higher incidence of SEN and EAL children.
I’m not coming from anywhere, merely stating factual observations. Finland will undoubtedly have some children with SEN and EAL but from what I understand there are fewer children with EAL and because they have a more equal society and higher quality early years care there is a smaller range of attainment on entry.
By all means push for rational reform, but we can’t simply copy the Finnish system of education. The current English system, as Paddy Briggs states in his original comment, is too stratified to change it overnight. Finland doesn’t have private schools and they started changing their education system 30 years ago, it was a gradual process that reaped dividends 20 years after it started.
In the current English educational environment streaming within schools is the most effective way that teacher can enable children to reach their potential.
Leon Wolfeson
Eh. If there’s a shortage of places, convert them to normal schools under LEA control.
Leon Wolfeson
I gave you evidence. You’re rejecting it. There are schools there with 50% foreign language speakers, and results are not depressed.
Why can’t we copy their system? With out government system, it absolutely CAN be changed overnight. The only requirement is political will.
Streaming, writing off kids, is plain wrong. No matter how you try and dress it up. And there are better alternatives, which you refuse to look at.