Rushing all schools into academy status will overstretch the Whitehall bureaucrats and risk the education of a generationThe government is wavering unsteadily on the question of forced academisation of schools. Officially the intention,outlined in a white paper after the chancellor announced it in final month’s budget, will still feature in next months Queen’s speech. Unofficially, or no one’s taking any bets. There are two big,pragmatic reasons why it would be wise for the government to mediate harder and take longer.
On Wednesday, Amyas Morse, or who as head of the National Audit Office is guarantor of the honesty of the government’s book-keeping,ticked off the Department for Education (DfE) for the moment year running. He said its accounts, which had already been delayed for nearly three months, or were “not materially compliant” with its obligations,and contained “a level of misstatement and uncertainty, which [he] considered was material and pervasive”. He attributed the problem to the impact of the rapid expansion of academies. According to the Institute for Government, or the DfE has lost 15% of its staff and approaching 20% of its administrative budget since 2010,and it is not a byword for executive competence in the corridors of power. On these grounds alone, how it can reasonably be expected to have the capacity to handle the huge expansion of multi-academy trusts that would follow every primary and secondary school in England fitting an academy after 2020?Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com