Writing in The Daily Telegraph on Monday, David Cameron outlined his desire to narrow the “shocking gap between the best and the worst” state-schools in the UK. His most recent target, however, is a departure from the type of schools that his two flagship reforms, Free Schools and Academies, have previously focused on. The Prime Minister declares that his newest education drive will concentrate on schools, outside of the country’s major cities, that are currently happy to “drift along tolerating second best.” Cameron seeks to resolve what he sees as a “hidden crisis” in England’s “prosperous shires and market towns,” wherein schools, although not failing, are failing to maximise their students’ potential. It is an issue, according to the Prime Minister, just as troubling as the more blatant educational crises in the nation’s metropolises.
The Prime Minister is worried about a sense of “complacency” ingrained in these schools, and in particular the kind of environment wherein, “staff count down the hours to the end of term without ever asking why B grades can’t be turned into As.” Cameron desires to spread a new brand of engaged and energetic education, characterised by “the brilliant new generation of teachers” currently seeking to overhaul failing inner-city schools. It is a mission that Bright Young Things sits firmly behind, in line with our mantra that enthralling and inspiring teaching makes all the difference. It is also one that we are currently promoting with our upcoming partnership with the charity Action Tutoring, with whom we will be sending our own tutors to failing schools across the capital. If this philosophy and these kinds of schemes, as the PM clearly hopes, can be extended throughout the country, the benefits can surely be nothing but positive.
As Mr Cameron’s focus moves out of the inner-cities, however, there is something somewhat troubling about his assurance that his current reforms amount to a “revolution” in inner-city education. A recent study, for instance, has raised serious doubts about how successfully Free Schools are actually dealing with issues of educational imbalance. The statistics, published in The Guardian this week, seem to suggest that the catchment-areas for free schools are skewed in favour of middle-class families, indicated by below average numbers of children claiming free-school meals (9.4%, against a national average of 18%). Moreover, questions have been raised regarding the running of Cameron’s Academies, with serious concerns noted in non-teaching staff’s salaries and schools’ accountability. The Guardian revealed this week, for instance, that only 38% of Academies filled out their financial return for the Department of Education (no longer compulsory), while the frequency of staff salaries of over £80,000 is somewhat worryingly 50% higher than in comprehensives. Freedom from syllabuses and the financial constraints of the state might well promote more independent and competitive schools, but it also leaves them very much at risk of financial mismanagement and an abdication of their accountability to those they are supposed to serve: local people, and local children.
Mr Cameron’s desire to tackle problems in the UK’s education system at large is indeed laudable. He must be very wary, however, that the reforms he has already introduced truly amount to the “revolution” that he believes they do. With 87 new Free Schools expected to open by September 2013 and increasing numbers of schools taking Academy status, the Prime Minister must be sure that his legacy in the education sector is not characterised by two ambitious experiments that failed.
Joshua Williams
