Michael Gove was no stranger to controversy during his time as Education Secretary. The debate on education policy over the last few months suggests that his successor, Nicky Morgan, may prove to be equally divisive. Most recently, government policy on academies has proved particularly contentious. Yet, in reality, apparent government backtracking may turn out to be more limited than it appears.
The government’s academies programme has long been a source of debate both within Westminster and among teachers and schools themselves. In 2010 Gove first set out his plans that would enable academy status to become “the norm” for schools in England. At the time he was met with significant backlash from teaching unions concerned about accountability and the undermining of teachers’ rights. Undeterred, Gove pushed on. Morgan has taken up his mantle and many academy success stories have emerged as a result.
Morgan took the reforms further by passing the Education and Adoption Act earlier this year. This enables the forced conversion of not only failing schools but also those deemed to be “coasting”. However, it was the most recent proposal to legislate to require all schools to have converted to academy status by 2022 that proved most contentious, with a number of Tory backbenchers and local council leaders publicly criticising the proposals. Concerns primarily centred on accountability, the impact on smaller rural schools and the forced conversion of already outstanding schools.
At a time when the Conservatives are already in-fighting over Brexit, Morgan seems to have taken a substantial U-turn on this policy as a means of restoring some peace. Just before the Queen’s Speech she announced that there would no longer be legislation to “bring about blanket conversion of all schools.” Instead the aim is for the legislation to trigger the conversion of schools in the worst performing local authorities and those that can no longer viably support their remaining schools. This is because the extent of existing academy conversion in their area would make it unsustainable for the local authority to manage the remaining maintained schools.
But was this really a U-turn? On the face of it the government has backed down from a clear commitment to require the conversion of all schools. However, that still remains the ultimate aim; it is just going to be achieved through slightly less forceful means. While we do not know yet how the DfE is going to identify the worst performing and “unviable” local authorities ahead of a planned consultation, recent research by think tank CentreForum suggests that this policy would still see the conversion of a further 12,000 schools. This would mean that 85 per cent of all schools would be academies.
Clarity on this may be further delayed if the Education Committee is allowed to undertake pre-legislative scrutiny of the “Education for All” Bill that will include these measures. This would be an opportunity for the sector to make its position heard on these proposals and may lead to further amendments to the government’s plans. However, ultimately it seems that the government is going to remain committed to its full conversion aim, even if the means of achieving this might be trickier to navigate than originally planned.