The government's education record is appalling, yet they are determined to continue with the doomed academy programme
The figures speak for themselves: 36 per cent of the schools that were rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted in 2012/13 had previously been rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’. There are 1.6 million children in England currently being educated in schools rated less than ‘good’. Here are some of the ways that the Conservatives have failed the education system:
1. Quality and supply of teachers
Currently around 400,000 children are being taught by unqualified teachers. This is after the government changed the law in 2012 to mean that ‘independent schools and free schools can already hire brilliant people who have not got qualified teacher status.’
The move was intended to give schools greater flexibility, but Labour argue that to raise standards in schools the focus must be on improving the quality of teaching; for this reason they will reinstate the teacher requirements that Cameron scrapped.
The government has also missed its teacher training target for three years in a row, and a record number of teachers – almost 50,000 – left the profession last year. This means that a teacher shortage crisis is now imminent.
2. Oversight
As Left Foot Forward reported last week, the Public Accounts Committee have accused the Department of Education of having ‘significant gaps’ in their knowledge of school performance. For this reason, they are failing to intervene quickly enough when schools are failing; a lack of sufficient oversight has also been blamed for Birmingham’s ‘Trojan Horse’ scandal.
3. The attainment gap
In 2010, the Conservative Manifesto promised to ‘close the attainment gap between the richest and poorest’, but last week school league tables showed that the gap in attainment between disadvantaged children and their peers has widened for the second year running. Just one in three disadvantaged children (those eligible for free school meals) obtained five A* to C grades at GCSE, compared to 60.5 per cent of all students.
4. Free schools
In September Cameron said that the creation of Free Schools would ‘drive up standards’. However, one third of those inspected so far have been rated ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’ by Ofsted, a much worse outlook than for all state-funded schools.
5. Class sizes
Since 2010, the number of infants being taught in classes of over 30 has risen by 200 per cent, hitting 93,665.
According to Labour:
“By focusing on pet-project Free Schools rather than the need for more primary school places, this government has created a crisis in school places, which is causing class sizes to soar and threatening standards.”
Commenting ahead of the prime minister’s speech today Kevin Courtney, deputy general secretary of the NUT, said:
“How much more evidence does the government need before it admits that its academy and free school programme has failed? It has failed on standards, failed on transparency, failed on accountability and failed to secure the trust of the public.
“It is a disgrace that the Government has allowed such a situation to develop and is turning a deaf ear to the serious concerns raised by such a wide range of people.
“It should turn its attention to the growing problem of insufficient school places, the drop in the number of applicants to train as a teacher and the fact that the number of teachers leaving the profession each year is at a 10-year high and has increased by 25 per cent since 2010.
“It is very clear that the academies and free schools programme has nothing to do with standards but everything to do with a privatisation agenda.
Ruby Stockham is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow her on Twitter
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12 Responses to “Five areas of education the Tories have made worse”
steroflex
I tried to start a free school. Silly me! I thought you could choose the staff, the place, the Head, the curriculum and the pupils. I also thought you could choose the ethos. What a hope! All done from the caring and sharing Mr Isaacs and rubber stamped by Mrs Gupta at Westminster. He never actually visited us, but he knew everything.
Leon Wolfeson
So to you, “best” means “does the most amount of damage”. I see.
You’re churning out kids who have one skill – rote memorisation. Universities are going to be calling for four-year degrees soon, since we’re wasting FAR too much time teaching basic skills like group work and research.
And Gove’s blight will make things far worse. Not to mention slashing the breadth of study which is going to bite the UK so badly in the backside.
Kenny Carwash
Incorrect. In about a year’s time, he’ll be exposed for the egomaniacal charlatan he is as his lack of joined-up policymaking leaves secondary education in chaos.
Antieduspiv
Add to these failings the privatisation of local authority education (academy chains) and a further weakening of local democracy, increasing reports from all over England of instances of financial mismanagement in academies (check Anti Academies Alliance website) and the introduction of selection by the back door (academies are their own admissions authorities, reported in The Independent recently), not to mention the protection of academy chains’ business interests from Ofsted scrutiny by Gove appointee Lord Nash (himself a director of a chain). In addition, there is every chance that the 1944 Butler act will be axed, so local authorities will have no mandatory responsibility to provide all children with some form of education. In addition this could trash SEN provision and support, usually provided by LAs, even in areas where academies predominate.
Leon Wolfeson
You expected to have a free hand with the Tories moralist/stateist approach? Sorry, but…heh.