8th May 2009
By David Williams
Teaching unions have rubbished as ‘spin’ government plans to give parents and teachers more power over schools.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced proposals to ‘completely re-chart’ the government’s approach to education in a speech at a south London school on May 5. A white paper on education is due next month.
Brown said he wanted to give parents new rights and responsibilities and successful schools more freedom. He wanted government to play a strategic role based on clear priorities, ‘not hundreds of initiatives’. Parents should have the power to influence the school system and councils could be forced to expand popular schools or open new ones.
But the proposals were condemned by the National Union of Teachers as ‘simply another piece of populist spin’. NUT general secretary Christine Blower said: ‘Schools already work with parents and governors to ensure information is available. Parents can look at, and analyse, Ofsted reports and visit schools.’
Nansi Ellis, head of education policy at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: ‘We are losing faith in the government — they are not listening properly to concerns about testing or the school starting age.’
