GMB joins condemnation of schools ‘academisation’

Trade union news

GMB joins condemnation of schools ‘academisation’

From a GMB press release:

GMB slams government plan to convert all schools to academies by 2022

This plan – forcing all primary and secondary schools to become academies by 2020 or have plans in place to do so by 2022 – will pave the way for trusts to profiteer from our state education system which is funded by the taxpayer.

Currently, 4,515 schools are academies leaving 15,632 still to convert over the next six years.

Academies are independently run, state-funded schools receiving their funding directly from the Department for Education, severing the link between local authorities and schools. Instead, oversight for academies is handed to one of only eight Regional School Commissioners across England.

Academies do not follow national pay scales for teachers or support staff and have the option to opt out of the national curriculum.

Avril Chambers, GMB national officer, said: “This announcement opens the door to privatisation of our education system. It removes schools from local accountability and democracy thereby removing the freedom of choice for local communities.

Significant powers will be given to unelected civil servants with parents and communities unable to hold them to account. Ultimately, it will pave the way for trusts to profiteer from our state education system which is funded by the taxpayer.”


For a response to the government’s announcement from a Socialist Party member in the NUT, see:

Unions must organise to defend education