1 September 2010
Only 32 outstanding-rated schools have taken up the government’s offer to reopen as academies in time for the new academic year, Education Secretary Michael Gove announced today.
The Academies Bill, passed in July, allowed schools in England that were given an ‘outstanding’ rating in the last round of Ofsted inspections to convert to academy status in time for September. The academy schools will be taken out of local authority control and given funding direct from central government.
The Department for Education said that around 110 more schools were applying for academy status and seven schools were in the process of becoming the first primary academy schools.
Gove said he was ‘quite encouraged’ by the uptake and added that the first round of schools would act as ‘pathfinders’.
However, the National Union of Teachers said it was a ‘great mistake’ to rush through the legislation. General secretary Christine Blower added that the ‘lack of accountability’ of the academies would have a ‘dramatic effect’ on children’s education. ‘The government has been given a clear message; the breakup of the state education system in England is not wanted,’ she said.
But Chris Husbands, professor at the Institute for Education, told Public Finance that it was ‘too soon’ to read anything into the success of the Bill.
‘First, the Bill came late in the summer holidays – unless schools were geared up for it, they would not have been ready,’ he said. ‘ Secondly, we have not yet seen what the financial arrangements are likely to be for academy schools, so at this stage it is understandable that schools are being a bit cautious. Thirdly, we are not yet clear about what the government’s policy on the role of local authorities is likely to be.’
The full extent of the success of the policy would become clear only after the government had clarified the new freedoms and the role of councils in October’s Spending Review, he added.
