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| Don’t rule out a forced retreat on forced academisation | Don’t rule out a forced retreat on forced academisation |
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| Another of the government’s mad, bad and ill-prepared schemes is in deep trouble. Let’s hear it for Jeremy Corbyn who correctly spotted at prime minister’s questions this morning that raising the plan for forced academisation of all primaries and secondaries in England by 2022 was likely to lead to an embarrassed silence on the benches behind David Cameron. | Another of the government’s mad, bad and ill-prepared schemes is in deep trouble. Let’s hear it for Jeremy Corbyn who correctly spotted at prime minister’s questions this morning that raising the plan for forced academisation of all primaries and secondaries in England by 2022 was likely to lead to an embarrassed silence on the benches behind David Cameron. |
| The prime minister vainly repeated well-refuted claims that evidence shows academisation means better schools, and in doing so failed to address the big point: why try to fix something that many even of his party’s rank and file don’t think is broken? He might insist there’s no going back, but it’s not what the mood music is saying. | The prime minister vainly repeated well-refuted claims that evidence shows academisation means better schools, and in doing so failed to address the big point: why try to fix something that many even of his party’s rank and file don’t think is broken? He might insist there’s no going back, but it’s not what the mood music is saying. |
| Related: Cameron to press ahead with plan to turn all schools into academies | Related: Cameron to press ahead with plan to turn all schools into academies |
| On Tuesday the education secretary, Nicky Morgan – who less than a month ago was telling delegates at the NASUWT conference there was no reverse gear – admitted that angry Tory colleagues had raised some good points. She added, presumably in an attempt to be reassuring: “It’s only a white paper.” | On Tuesday the education secretary, Nicky Morgan – who less than a month ago was telling delegates at the NASUWT conference there was no reverse gear – admitted that angry Tory colleagues had raised some good points. She added, presumably in an attempt to be reassuring: “It’s only a white paper.” |
| The climbdown won’t happen overnight. But the list of backbenchers who oppose the idea – many of them with rural constituencies where voters cherish their small primaries, and know that they might struggle to survive as academies – now looks longer than the government’s majority of 12. It may come down to the SNP’s votes, again. Certainly, in a Commons debate last week Tory after Tory expressed their concern and bewilderment at the decision. Retreat, however disguised, may be Morgan’s only option. | The climbdown won’t happen overnight. But the list of backbenchers who oppose the idea – many of them with rural constituencies where voters cherish their small primaries, and know that they might struggle to survive as academies – now looks longer than the government’s majority of 12. It may come down to the SNP’s votes, again. Certainly, in a Commons debate last week Tory after Tory expressed their concern and bewilderment at the decision. Retreat, however disguised, may be Morgan’s only option. |
| The policy, announced in last month’s budget, was another of those policy explosions that George Osborne resorts to when he needs to mask forced retreats on other fronts. Trailed as the centrepiece of the budget (a move that often ends up embarrassing Osborne), it would reinforce the image of a government busily engaged in shrinking the state. But ambushing the party rank and file with a predictably unpopular policy innovation is never a good idea. | The policy, announced in last month’s budget, was another of those policy explosions that George Osborne resorts to when he needs to mask forced retreats on other fronts. Trailed as the centrepiece of the budget (a move that often ends up embarrassing Osborne), it would reinforce the image of a government busily engaged in shrinking the state. But ambushing the party rank and file with a predictably unpopular policy innovation is never a good idea. |
| No one had consulted, it seems, the hundreds of Tory-controlled councils that regard running education as one of their big jobs. In particular the shire counties are proud of their primaries, and well aware of how important they are to the viability of rural communities. The education office of David Cameron’s own county, Oxfordshire, is among the more outspoken rebels. Its schools boss Melinda Tilley, quoted today by Corbyn, said it was Big Brother gone mad – which is quite polite compared with what many of her colleagues are calling it. | No one had consulted, it seems, the hundreds of Tory-controlled councils that regard running education as one of their big jobs. In particular the shire counties are proud of their primaries, and well aware of how important they are to the viability of rural communities. The education office of David Cameron’s own county, Oxfordshire, is among the more outspoken rebels. Its schools boss Melinda Tilley, quoted today by Corbyn, said it was Big Brother gone mad – which is quite polite compared with what many of her colleagues are calling it. |
| The revolt is only partly about the anger towards a government that, on the one hand, keeps talking about devolving power, but on the other keeps accumulating more power at the centre. | The revolt is only partly about the anger towards a government that, on the one hand, keeps talking about devolving power, but on the other keeps accumulating more power at the centre. |
| As Tories who care about schools know, whatever Cameron claims, the evidence just doesn’t show that academy status means better schools. Where schools that were already good or outstanding convert to academy status, they tend to go on to further success; where they were failing, far too many have gone on failing. There are huge unanswered questions about accountability, failure regimes and the curriculum. | |
| Related: Making all schools academies imperils children’s life chances | David Blunkett | Related: Making all schools academies imperils children’s life chances | David Blunkett |
| Critics don’t include just backbenchers, such as the former minister Tim Loughton or the former Tory chair of the cross-party education committee Graham Stuart. In an interview on Newsnight last week, the former education secretary – the man who first launched academies, Kenneth Baker – produced a litany of criticisms of the government’s education policies, all delivered with his old, self-basting charm. He included the point that it had taken 30 years to build up academies to their current status, and there simply wasn’t the capacity to accelerate the change at the rate Morgan is anticipating. | Critics don’t include just backbenchers, such as the former minister Tim Loughton or the former Tory chair of the cross-party education committee Graham Stuart. In an interview on Newsnight last week, the former education secretary – the man who first launched academies, Kenneth Baker – produced a litany of criticisms of the government’s education policies, all delivered with his old, self-basting charm. He included the point that it had taken 30 years to build up academies to their current status, and there simply wasn’t the capacity to accelerate the change at the rate Morgan is anticipating. |
| Just as intakes soar, teacher recruitment and retention stumbles; and as school spending stalls, the Department for Education is proposing laying out at least £1.3bn on the biggest shift in school governance since 1944. It is the politics of the desperate. | Just as intakes soar, teacher recruitment and retention stumbles; and as school spending stalls, the Department for Education is proposing laying out at least £1.3bn on the biggest shift in school governance since 1944. It is the politics of the desperate. |
| In a month’s time, legislation for the coming year will be announced in the Queen’s speech. In its current form, don’t bet on forced academisation surviving. | In a month’s time, legislation for the coming year will be announced in the Queen’s speech. In its current form, don’t bet on forced academisation surviving. |
| • This article was amended on 21 April 2016 to clarify a sentence about good or outstanding schools that convert to academy status. |