School academies will create social segregation, Birmingham MP warns
Jul 21 2010 by Jonathan Walker, Birmingham Post
Plans to create dozens of new academies in the West Midlands have been condemned as causing “social segregation” between the best and the worst schools.
Shabana Mahmood (Lab Ladywood) also criticised the Government’s plans as “undemocratic”, as she opposed the Academies Bill in the House of Commons.
Education Secretary Michael Gove invited schools which received an “outstanding” rating from official inspectors Oftsed to become academies, which would make them independent from local authority control.
It emerged last month that 30 top schools in Birmingham and Solihull had asked the Department for Education to send them details about how to apply.
Academies are allowed to set their own pay rates for staff, are free from the requirement to follow the National Curriculum and can change the lengths of terms and school days.
But teaching unions claim they are divisive and perform no better than traditional schools.
And Labour has accused Mr Gove of trying to rush legislation to create new academies through the Commons without a proper debate.
Ms Mahmood said: “Schools that are considered outstanding by Ofsted are to be pre-approved. Grammar schools will also be allowed to become academies, something expressly prevented by the Labour Government. That can lead only to social segregation, not social justice.”
She added: “It is perverse also that a school that is already deemed outstanding will get a chance to become better. Surely that move by the Secretary of State, more than anything else, gives away his true motive for the Bill.
"If it were about driving up standards and improving the quality of education that our children receive, he would have made express mention of those matters in the Bill and would not have pre-approved already outstanding schools.”
But she appeared to criticise Tony Blair, the former Labour Prime Minister, when it was put to her that Mr Blair had wanted every school to become an academy.
Ms Mahmood said: “Tony Blair is no longer the leader of my party, and I was elected in May 2010. Although I agree with much of what he did when he was Prime Minister and leader of our great party, I do not agree with all of what he said and did.”
Academies were a flagship education policy of the Labour government, with around 200 schools opening. But Labour MPs say they used the policy to help disadvantaged areas and claim Conservatives will use it to help the most wealthy.
Mr Gove wrote to all secondary, primary and special schools in England several weeks ago, inviting them to apply for academy status. So far more than 1,500 have registered an interest.
Schools rated “outstanding” will be pre-approved, which means they can become academies as early as this September, provided the Bill becomes law.
