01 June 2006

An interesting speech by Alan Johnson, the new Education Secretary, to the Fabian Society last week. His first as he put it since “being released into the community” and an early airing of some of his thinking.

Bullish, different in tone to his predecessor and challenging, his theme was change and the need for more of it, “we must push ahead with a refreshed and revised radicalism in ours schools policy.” This commitment to change hasn’t pleased everybody but he clearly means business. His dismissal of opponents of change as “simple souls who believe that a successful Government leads us all to a land of milk and honey over about six years” was evidence of that. That was aimed fair and square at critics of the current Education Bill, Trust Schools and all that, this being the day after the night before which had seen the Bill squeeze through the Third Reading in the Commons.

After nine years, he felt that the Government was now moving into “unchartered territory,” so what remains to be done? He outlined three areas and five consequent themes for action. The areas are familiar but partisan; this Education Secretary can clearly touch both core values and raw nerves at the same time. The first was the continuing drive for better education opportunity for all, “the fact is that some children still get a raw deal.” The second the need to face up to global challenges on skill levels, “which is why it’s all the more shocking that England’s share of 17 year olds in education is 37th out of the 40 major industrialised countries.” And the third, better value for money, “we need to match our massive investment with radical reform.”

Having set out the context, he moved on to define the five themes for action.

First, a better deal for children in care, “we do not at present emerge with much credit in this area.” So a Green paper will be published this summer looking at all the factors which affect the performance of looked after children. This will be an important component of the Every Child Matters agenda.

Second, a familiar Ministerial theme, namely getting tough on failing schools, but laced with some plain speaking. “Society must get tougher, less emotional and more practical” and “let me be clear that calling a school failed doesn’t mean either that the teachers failed or the pupils failed – it’s a failure by the state to meet the needs of local children.” And the way forward? After another uncomfortable week, this time about burgeoning costs, it’s Academies, they “offer a clear and viable way out for failing schools.” They may be contentious but the target of 200 Academies ‘open or in train’ by 2010 remains and Alan Johnson came across as a strong supporter; “despite some misleading reports, results in Academies are improving at three times the overall national rate, despite having twice the number of children on free school meals.”

With the gloves now off, he moved on to his third theme, that of standards and in particular Trust schools and the way in which they can help raise standards. “I sometimes wonder if some of the hostility to Trust Schools is less about what they are and more about what they represent.” That was the parry and this was the punch, “It’s a bizarre kind of reverse elitism which tolerates failing comprehensives whilst denigrating any suggestion of diversity from the traditional Local Authority model.” Ouch, but the vision was much more core values, “schools which perform best drive up standards within the school by drawing energy and expertise from outside.” He claimed that a growing number of schools were expressing interest in the Trust route and cited two. Time will tell whether schools who so far have not come forward for Foundation status in large numbers do so for the Trust model.

The fourth theme, parental choice, was also familiar in concept but given a sharper edge. Caricaturing the way in which parental choice operates at the moment, buying a home in the right area, furrowing through data on school performance, even “hurrying to church for a quick knees down on a couple of Sundays,” he called for the option of choice to be much more widely available than at present. He stressed the important role that local Authorities and the new network of parental choice advisers can play in this and reminded people that the current Bill allows for access to free school transport to their three nearest secondary schools within a six mile radius for those who qualify. All of this is “a small but significant redistribution of power from providers back to parents, pupils and schools.”

The final and equally familiar theme was that of personalisation.. “This doesn’t just mean one to one tuition, it does mean responding to the individual needs of children.” As the Chancellor signalled in his 2006 Budget, the Government is putting a lot of money into this agenda, the Education Secretary quoted £1bn a year, though the Chancellor indicated an extra £220m this year and £365m next, and the Gilbert Review Group is looking at the longer term options. He saw 14 – 19 specialised Diplomas, “one of the most underplayed, yet most redoubtable parts of the current Bill” as being a big contributor to a more personalised curriculum because they will “free children from learning academic subjects for which they have no interest nor aptitude.” A bit of plain speaking about the academic vocational divide that puts current developments in perspective.

© Edexcel Policy Watch 2005. Steve Besley is General Manger of Education Policy at Edexcel. Policy watch is a service intended to help busy people understand developments in the world of education. Visit Edexcel at www.edexcel.org.uk