Why We Should all be Crying Out Against Forced Academisation

Watching the recent budget announcements felt like watching an episode of Game of Thrones. George Osbourne, stood proudly like spoilt Joffrey delivering his decree, blindsiding the peasants by stealing their sugary drinks, whilst the real death sentence was dished out to education. (I would have liked to have suggested here that there are fewer tits than an episode of GOT but, well, the Conservatives…)

If Georgey boy has his way, all schools will be forced to become academies by 2020 to ‘free schools from local education bureaucracy.’ Let me just point out: it took thirty five sentences to explain a 20p tax on a bottle of fizzy pop, whilst only just one sentence was used to announce the fact that he was privatising education.

Because that’s what academisation really is. Privatisation by the back door, and don’t think that means neat little uniforms and straw hats.

It means no regulation.

It means a schools’ first priority becomes about making money, rather than about educating children.

During the first five years of my school becoming an academy, the ‘freedom from local education bureaucracy’ led to the headteacher giving herself a 33% pay rise over four years (despite a significant dip in results), a school that was £1.4million in debt by the time she was asked to leave, and many support staff redundancies including staff who helped support special needs children. With no LEA regulation, she was able to hire friends without interview, waste money on monthly flower deliveries, and pay for a motivational speaker to train her in public speaking. The amazing thing about all that is that she didn’t do anything illegal. Without regulation in academies, headteachers can do what they like with public money.

It also means that academies can set their own policies. They can refuse to acknowledge teaching unions, thereby being free to treat staff however they please. They can also use policies to try and silence staff. This is why many teachers are reluctant to speak out about the state of education and one of the reasons why Osbourne has been able to drop a bomb on education without any resistance. My school has one of these policies too. It is the reason I write under a pen name.

Another issue with lack of regulation is that schools can hire unqualified teachers. It is cheaper for schools to do this, but ‘learning on the job’ whilst being paid peanuts is no substitute for having someone who has been properly trained to deal with disruptive behaviour. Education shouldn’t be an area where we are cutting corners.

Recently, friends of mine have been complaining how they have been unable to get their kids into the local school, despite being in the catchment area. When all schools are academies, they will be able to set their own admissions criteria, meaning catchment areas won’t exist anymore. Given that schools are now judged solely on results, which child you would take if you were a Headteacher? A child with special needs who will cost the school money to support? Or a child who is bright as a button, and likely to get the school another A* by the time they take their GCSE’s? Academies can be as selective as they like and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

There have of course been other educational reforms announced in recent days – lengthening the school day to include extra curricular activities (because schools don’t offer those already! Duh!) getting rid of parent governors (another form of regulation gone!) and the continuing teacher recruitment crisis– and of course these issues also deserve discussion, but forced academisation is the most pressing and the most important issue involving education and one we should all be concerned about.

Once comprehensive education gets the chop, there is no going back. Joffrey will rule.