Academies : The Future of Education?
By Dominic Tarn.
For the last century at least every government has attempted to improve our nations education system in some way. Prior to that it was up to private enterprise, the Church, and endowments from wealthy patrons. Now the Academy model produces schools which are a hybrid of those two methods of providing education. According a Conservative Policy Green Paper (No. 1) this party admires the way ‘they succeed in areas of real disadvantage.’
The London Borough of Hackney has risen from 16th to 5th in the Value Added Rankings in London, in part thanks to an Academy School. PWC reports commissioned annually by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) since 2003 confirm a noticeable ‘Academy “effect”‘ on pupils performance, behavior, and aspirations. PWC also notes ‘the rate of improvement in academies is . . . often significantly greater, than the corresponding improvements in similar schools’ (Pg. 82, July 2007 report). The BBC reports that by January 2009 there will be 134 academies open across the UK.
Education Minister, Ed Balls wants schools “fit for the future,” and announced recently that approximately 45 universities are to sponsor academies. Liverpool University opened one in 2006, and so did the University of West England (along with Bristol City FC) in Bristol. In the Borough of Camden however, University College London is coming under fierce criticism for wanting to open an academy.
Opposition is coming from several sources and is strong enough to have sent UCL to the High Court. The Diocese of London submitted a petition backed up with 1,900 signatures expressing interest in running the proposed academy. The Church operates 147 schools in London. Some students won tacit support from UCL Union when a motion was submitted to the AGM. The most vocal opposition comes from within the left of the Labour Party (when Camden Council was Labour it rebuffed UCL’s advances), and from the Camden branch of the Campaign for State Education, who’s Vice Chair is Fiona Millar, a former UCL student and partner of Alastair Campbell.
UCL is ranked in the top 10 universities in the world, it already has a successful working partnership with City and Islington College, and is opening a division of itself in Sydney, Australia: taking its global mission truly global. It has promised ‘NOT be a selective school’ and that it will ‘follow Camdens guidelines . . . as closely as possible.’ Opposition seems strongest on grounds that there was not an open and fair competition. I support competition, but in this instance, where there really is no one else who can do (in this Borough) what UCL can do, a competition would seem to be a wasteful and prolonged exercise to either generate the same – or a worse – result. Logically that would not seem to benefit pupils in the area, just as failing to expand on this model would not benefit secondary school students nationally.
photo: Bridge Academy, Hackney
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