A couple of weeks ago, I asked what the Lib Dems were for (http://newsmyfanwy.blogspot.com/). I thought it was only right to ask the same question of the other parties…
Last weekend I picked up Josef Frankl’s book on Logotherapy. He argues that people’s happiness emerges almost accidentally out of serving a useful purpose. Simple and liberating...
But will Labour find happiness?
The debate on Academies (or as the Tories insisted on calling them, “Free Schools”) may offer Labour a way of finding a principled way forward. In England, the incoming Blair Government vowed to make education its main priority. But in both the primary and secondary sectors, well to do parents increasingly used league tables to dominate the best performing schools and increase educational inequalities.
Initially, Labour enabled ‘failing’ schools to opt out of local authority control as Academies which are publicly funded schools outside local authority control that can select a proportion on pupils by ability. In some cases, these institutions used their status to develop poor staffing practices, including refusing union recognition and making staff easier to sack. Far from affirming parent-power or even localism, such schools turned out to be run by Governors, private Sponsors and Head Teachers under the direct control of the Minister. Academies are exempt from freedom of information requests and so their methods of obtaining exam results are above scrutiny. But rates of exclusion from some Academies, suggest that taking hard to reach pupils out of the mix is a tactic used to boost results...
We are now faced with a Tory “Academies Bill” which would allow up to 500 secondary schools and nearly 2,000 primary schools in England to become independent by September and could see private companies running them.
Because the main contenders for the Labour leadership supported creating Academies and have maintained that support in opposition, their criticism of the Tories’ plan to extend Academy status to more successful schools will be compromised.
How much more preferable would it be to see an honest debate in Labour about taking responsibility for raising standards in schools? There are few more important motors for achieving equality available to any Government than ensuring fairness in our publicly-funded schools. Can we expect that debate from the Labour leadership contest? Probably not.
I would like to think there is room for that debate here in Wales - and it is likely to be needed.
The “Academies Bill” applies only to schools in England. But we have a handful of semi-independent foundation schools in Wales and I hear that at least one school in Cardiff is already pressing for Academy status. Will Labour dangle such 'Academy status' before worried parents in the run up to the Welsh General Election?
Their introduction of such a divisive system in England, and their reluctance to own up to the increased inequality that this system has created does not inspire confidence.
