Make every school an academy
Cameron announces biggest reform of the education system since national curriculum
EVERY school in the country should become an academy, David Cameron says today, in a move that represents the most significant reform of the education system since the introduction of the national curriculum.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, the Prime Minister says that the Tories will give all schools the opportunity to be free from the control of local authorities. The academies programme, which was established by Tony Blair, is opposed by the leading candidates for the Labour leadership.
The Tories say that Labour’s opposition to academies highlights the party’s dramatic shift to the Left and shows that Mr Cameron now controls the Blairite centre ground of politics.
Downing Street believes that the turmoil in Labour – highlighted by its bitter leadership contest – gives the Conservatives an opportunity to appeal to low-income voters and ensure the party remains in power for more than a decade.
Marking 100 days since his general election victory, the Prime Minister pledges to put education at the heart of his second term by dramatically expanding the academies programme.
Every headteacher in England should be able to set their own curriculum and decide salary levels free from the influence of “bureaucrats”, Mr Cameron says.
“When Labour leadership contenders say they want to phase out academies, I say the opposite,” Mr Cameron writes. “I want every school in the country to have the opportunity to become an academy and to benefit from the freedoms this brings.
“So we will make it a priority to recruit more academy sponsors and support more great headteachers in coming together in academy chains.”
A government source said the plans amount to the biggest change to education since the national curriculum was introduced in 1988.
Mr Cameron has already announced that thousands of schools deemed to be failing will be taken over and turned into academies as part of a drive to improve standards.
Under the plans for “100 per cent academisation” no schools other than those judged to be failing will be forced to become academies.
However, schools will be given more government support to enable them to turn into academies. “We want everyone to have a chance to succeed and education is the best way of ensuring that,” Mr Cameron adds.
“It also means giving great headteachers the freedom to run their own schools with the ability to set their own curriculum and pay their staff properly. I profoundly believe this is the right direction for our country because I want teachers, not bureaucrats, deciding how best to educate our chil- dren.” Mr Cameron says that his government has a “genuine One Nation vision for our country through which I believe Conservative ideas can lead the way for a decade”.
The Prime Minister writes that reforms such as the national living wage, introduced by George Osborne in the Budget, show that the Tories are “delivering strong, centre-ground, pragmatic and progressive government”.
“On the challenge of delivering an economy that supports working people to get on in their lives, it is Conservatives who believe that a free enterprise economy is an ally not an enemy in generating wealth and extending opportunity to all,” Mr Cameron says.
What a difference 100 days makes. On the eve of the last election, polls suggested a country closely divided between Labour and the Conservatives. Both sides claimed to represent “hardworking families” in an attempt to dominate the centre-ground of British politics. The lopsided Tory victory on May 7 surprised many. The Lib Dems were annihilated. Labour sank to its worst position since the Eighties. And, in the weeks that followed, the gulf between Left and Right in terms of philosophy and popularity has only widened. Politically, the UK is transformed.
The Left seems lost to irrelevance and division. Labour’s establishment has only belatedly realised the scale of the Jeremy Corbyn phenomenon. Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall have now urged their supporters to cast second and third preference votes for “anyone but Corbyn”, although Andy Burnham tells us that he refuses to join their effort. Meanwhile, senior moderate MPs are said to be preparing for a hard-Left surge by organising a parliamentary “resistance”. The implication is that Labour is being occupied by socialist entryists. But analysis of the registration data shows that it is actually being occupied by its own members. The grassroots and the unions are on the march. Even if Mr Corbyn loses, they will not cease.
The Left’s ambitions are extraordinary. Mr Corbyn this week unveiled a 10-point manifesto that reads like the list of demands by a South American rebel army. Nationalisation of energy and the railways. Stronger union powers. An end to austerity. Economic policy aside, if Labour elects Mr Corbyn then it will not only indicate how regressive the party is but will send a bad message internationally. What will our global partners think if the Opposition is headed by a man who has described Hamas and Hizbollah as “friends” and is accused of associating with extremists? His pledge to abolish Trident and dislike of Nato implies withdrawal from the world at a time when Russia and extremist Islamism threaten peace. Britain is not some giant student union in which politicians compete over who is the more authentically radical. The country’s wellbeing is at stake.
Under Tony Blair, Labour understood that the centre-ground was the space to occupy; doing so appealed to voters from both Right and Left, and reshaped the political discourse. Today, standing astride the centre-ground, with all the authority that an election victory brings, is David Cameron. Of all the parties, it is only the Conservatives who can speak for all working Britons.
Writing for this newspaper, the Prime Minister looks back on his first 100 days and counts the bold initiatives. On the economic front, his Government has moved to tackle low productivity and low pay with a shake-up of tax credits. Mr Cameron wants more apprenticeships and support for those parents who wish to go back to work. The NHS is being moved towards a seven-day model. And in education he looks forward to a time when every school can become an academy – expanding a Blairite idea that has now been disowned by all four Labour candidates. Mr Cameron’s emphasis upon raising educational standards shows that he is exactly where he needs to be politically. Mr Blair’s capture of the middle ground was reflected in his priority of “education, education, education”. It can be the hardest public service reform to tackle and yet, very often, the one that matters the most to those “hard-working families”. There is no social mobility without academic success. It is the gateway to a better life.
The Government is tackling the things that matter to the public. By contrast, in these past 100 days the Left has disappeared down the rabbit hole and shows no sign of resurfacing. No doubt some Conservatives feel triumphant. But complacency is bad in a government, and Britain needs a decent Opposition to hold Mr Cameron to account. Unfortunately, for the next few weeks at least, Labour only seems interested in opposing itself.