| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Mr. Blunkett: May I clarify the answer to the question that I would have asked if I had been able to intervene a few seconds earlier? If the new Conservative policy involves direct funding to schools, what role would the education authority have in the distribution of those resources?
Mr. Crispin Blunt (Reigate): None, I hope.
Mr. Blunkett: The hon. Gentleman has answered the question. If he is correct, does that imply that a Conservative Government would set up not only a national funding formula, but an agency equivalent to the Funding Agency for Schools for England to distribute the resources? Would they thus accept full responsibility for the pupil-teacher ratio, the books, the equipment and the running costs of each of the 24,000 schools?
Mr. Willis: That would have been my question, too.
Mrs. May: I am happy to answer the Secretary of State's question and the putative question from the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Mr. Willis). We are considering the formula for funding schools under the free schools policy. Many teachers have told us that a national funding formula should be adopted by the Government. I understand that the Secretary of State said this morning that he, too, might consider such a formula and the adoption of such responsibilities.
What is important is to ensure that money for education is spent in the best possible way--in the interests of children in our schools and of improving education. In order to do that, we need to give heads the common-sense responsibility to decide what is in the best interests of the children in their schools. That is the right approach.
I am interested in the Secretary of State's reference to freedoms. That is yet another Government U-turn in only a few weeks. For example, there were an amazing number of U-turns last week on the issue of selection.
The Secretary of State told us today that he was expanding the excellence in cities programme, but I must point out to him that that includes an expansion of selection. Selection is a key element of that programme, with pupils not being selected by aptitude as the Government say they will be for specialist schools, but being accepted on the basis of ability. That will give the 5 to 10 per cent. most able pupils in such schools a different education from that received by the other children in those schools. The Government claim that there will be no selection by examination or by interview. Perhaps the Secretary of State can explain how the children in excellence in cities schools are selected for their ability if it is not by examination or interview.
That is not the only Government U-turn that we have witnessed--there have also been U-turns on freedoms and selection. Last week, the Secretary of State was spinning around in a whirl on the issue of grammar schools. One minute he was against them, then he was not against them and then he was against them again. Grammar schools woke up after the vote in the House of Lords feeling that the pressure on them had been relieved and that their future was once again certain, only to find their hopes dashed by the Secretary of State's intention to reintroduce ballots when the Learning and Skills Bill comes before this House. Grammar schools now know that their future is uncertain and that they are under constant threat directly as a result of the Government's actions.
Another U-turn was made on the issue of city academies. I am sorry that the hon. Member for Bristol, West (Valerie Davey) has left the Chamber. She asked the Secretary of State to confirm how terrible city technology colleges were and I understood him to confirm that point. However, the city academies are very much based on the approach of the city technology colleges. The hon. Lady spoke about division, but, as my hon. Friend the Member for Guildford (Mr. St. Aubyn) pointed out, much of the division--where it existed--was caused not by the creation of city technology colleges, or by their heads and teachers, but by Labour councillors who refused to meet the CTCs. For example, in Bradford, they refused to allow local authority schools to play sports against the CTCs. They froze out CTCs and excluded them from the local community of education and the local community of schools.
Last week, the Secretary of State announced the setting up of the city academies, and we heard in the Budget that £60 million would go to them and other failing schools projects. When the Financial Secretary responds to the debate, will he explain what the legal status of city academies will be, given that they will be outwith the control of local authorities?
I hope that the Government will take the opportunity to applaud the work done by Surrey county council in bringing in the company 3Es to take over the failing Kings Manor school in Guildford. I hope that the Government will also take the opportunity to condemn the actions of the National Union of Teachers in Surrey, which is trying to prevent 3Es from exercising the freedom that it believes it needs on staffing in the school so that it can turn the school from a failing one into one that provides the right quality of education for all children.
Diversity and excellence in education is an issue with which we are particularly concerned. However, it is interesting to note some of the comments that have recently been made about it. The following statements were made:
Mr. Blunkett:
Perhaps the hon. Lady can recall the name of the document on which the 1995 Labour party conference voted, which caused so much controversy and dealt both with selection and grant-maintained status. The name of the document was, of course, "Diversity and Excellence in Schools".
Mrs. May:
Given the policies that this Government introduced on taking office, that document sounds as much of a joke as the Secretary of State claims the comments he made at that conference were. The Government have ceaselessly tried to remove diversity from education, in attacks on grammar and grant- maintained schools. In so many ways, they have cut parental choice and removed diversity.
I welcome the fact that the Secretary of State is now willing and happy to adopt the Conservative party's partner schools proposal--except, as in everything, he wants to restrict that good idea to a few schools and to prevent it from being open to all. I ask him to consider that issue. We should be increasing diversity and excellence in education for all children in every part of the country, not targeting certain ideas merely on particular areas--notably, from the sound of those set out by the Secretary of State today, Labour local authorities.
I shall deal now with the issue of failing schools and the announcement of £60 million for the fresh start programme and city academies. The Secretary of State made several comments on the exclusion policy in failing schools. I want to address that serious matter because it relates to the quality of education received by both the child who is at risk of exclusion or has been excluded, and others in a classroom where a child has not been excluded and continues to disrupt learning.
Those who are dealing with failing schools and difficult schools in inner cities consistently refer to the problem of being unable to exercise the discipline policy that they want and to the fact that that inability to exclude pupils restricts their ability to improve education and turn the schools around. It is right to provide children who are
excluded with an appropriate education; they should not be left on one side, because their life chances depend on their receiving an appropriate education. However, keeping those children on site, either in the classroom or in the learning support unit, is not always the answer for either the child concerned or others.
Mr. Barry Gardiner (Brent, North):
Will the hon. Lady give way?
Mrs. May:
I shall in a moment.
Not only teachers but pupils to whom I talked the other day in a secondary school in Kettering said that they were concerned because disruptive pupils were being kept in the classroom as a result of the head teacher's inability to exercise the complete freedom to exclude. Head teachers should have freedom to exercise the discipline policy--including exclusion--that they believe is right for their schools, the pupil concerned and others in the classroom.
Mr. Willis:
Will the hon. Lady give way?
My vision is one of excellence and diversity, a vision of transformation . . . there are a number of key principles behind such transformation including . . . increased diversity of provision . . . schools will be built and managed by partnerships involving . . . voluntary, church and business sponsors.
An alternative statement is:
We believe that a commitment to . . . genuine diversity is fundamental to achieving excellence in education . . . Partner schools . . . will be set up by the private sector or voluntary groups or charities.
You, Mr. Deputy Speaker, might not think that there is very much difference between the statements. However, the second statement on diversity is a direct quotation from the Conservative party's document on "The Common Sense Revolution in education", which we announced last November and which is about partner schools. The first set of statements is more recent. Again, I welcome the Secretary of State's conversion to diversity in education--this time in his proposals for city academies.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |