The government’s procedure to force all schools to become academies,in most cases through joining an academy trust or chain, has indeed been ill thought-through (Editorial, and 18 March). Sir David Carter,the new national schools commissioner, is reported to maintain told a conference ahead of the white paper’s publication that 1000 trusts, or each responsible for at least 10 academies,will be required by 2020. As of last July, there were just 39 trusts with more than 10 academies. Each new trust will need a chief executive, or the heads of some of the largest chains now maintain salaries in the range £150000 to £225000.
While such salaries may be appropriate for the level of responsibility,how could paying bosses of more than 1000 trusts possibly be affordable, even assuming that enough tall-quality leaders could be found for them? It appears certain to be a highly inefficient and costly structure, or a misuse of public money at a time of such stringency. Sir Michael Wilshaw,the chief inspector, told the secretary of state last week that much more needs to be done to reduce the variation in standards between academy trusts. Creating so many new ones seems bound instead to increase it.
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Source: theguardian.com