The Education Bill, published on 27 January 2011, cements the Government’s long-term strategy to reform the management, financing and accountability of schools. The Government’s avowed aims are to help teachers raise standards in schools, to “root out bad behaviour”, tackle underperformance and improve the way in which schools are held to account.
The Bill has further enraged critics of the Government’s approach to education, though, with opposition sources and charities claiming it will lead to greater hardship and poorer opportunities for many. Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Andy Burnham blasted the Government’s claims that the Bill will increase choice and freedom for schools and parents, arguing that “their education reforms amount to a single, narrow vision imposed on every child in every school”.
The Bill provides the Secretary of State with powers to intervene where schools are seen to be underperforming. It introduces “smarter school inspections” under which Ofsted will now focus only on four core elements of schools: pupil achievement, teaching, leadership and behaviour and safety. The Bill also charges the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) with “measuring our education system against the best in the world”, by comparing our exam standards against the highest performing countries.
Launching the Bill, Education Secretary Michael Gove said: “We’re lucky that there are many teachers doing a fantastic job. But there are still too many schools that simply aren’t good enough. We must learn from other countries which do things better.”
In addition, the Bill will strengthen teachers’ powers to deal with bad behaviour. It gives them the power to search for any items schools ban which disrupt learning, such as mobile phones and video cameras. It also gives schools the final say in expelling violent pupils and aims to protect teachers from pupils making false allegations.
“We’re giving more powers for teachers to do their job properly – the ability to impose better discipline and freeing them from bureaucracy”, said Mr Gove. “The best schools will be freed from inspections so Ofsted will now concentrate on what matters – teaching and behaviour.”
However, the Government’s measures have been criticised by those who fear they will exacerbate problems of poor standards and patchy provision, while ignoring the needs of many of the most disadvantaged individuals and families.
Commenting on the Education Bill, Labour’s Andy Burnham said, “Michael Gove wants to take our schools back to the 1950s. It is an elitist, backward-looking vision that won’t equip our children with the knowledge and skills they need for the modern world…Gove shows how out of touch he is when he prioritises Latin over ICT.”
Brendan Barber, the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) said: “Many of the provisions in this Bill are a direct attack on our democratically accountable school system. Extending academies and introducing free schools will fail to serve the interests of the majority of families and pupils, and will instead divert resources away from the schools in greatest need of support.”
