NEW LABOUR’S proposals for education academies argue that poorer
families and deprived areas will benefit. Blair and Co. say giving
schools independence and academy status will drive up standards and
provide excellence for all. In areas like Lambeth we already know that
this isn’t the case.
Rob MacDonald
In one area of Lambeth, similar proposals have led to the situation
where three cousins who live in the same street go to three different
schools in three different boroughs travelling 22 miles per day between
them.
They all live two to five minutes walk from a Foundation School and
15 minutes walk from a catholic school. But they were unable to get into
these local schools.
This problem stemmed from allowing these schools to have independence
and choose their own admission systems which systematically weeded out
less academic or non-religious families.
The schools got their required results leading to the idea, often
false, that some schools are desirable and others not. So-called
‘failing’ schools had been previously shut and land sold off to housing
developers.
The foundation school sucked in resources and was hugely
over-subscribed. It systematically took a higher proportion of children
with better academic abilities and the catholic school drew in children
from a wider area. The result was that hundreds of local children were
left with no school place.
Blair’s academies will decide their own criteria making yet more
admissions authorities, one of the key problems in Lambeth. Even if
community pressure makes academies start with fair admission criteria,
there is no guarantee they will keep to it.
If all schools develop as academies with private sponsors making
decisions, a nightmare will develop. Competition for pupils will be the
driving factor and so-called more able, better behaved or religiously
correct children will be favoured to make the statistics work and create
the illusion of improvement.
Further privatisation of schools and the smashing of LEAs will weaken
what little democracy and accountability we have left to do anything
about it. The lesson of foundation/independent schools in Lambeth has
been that it creates two-tier schooling where, in the main,
working-class kids lose out.
