Memorandum submitted by the National Association
of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) (SA 15)
SUMMARY
The submission by NASUWT highlights a number
of key concerns relating to the issue of school admissions in
the secondary education sector. In particular, the Association's
submission highlights the need for the following:
— the establishment of a national framework
to achieve consistency in the arrangements for school admissions;
— the policy on the establishment and
expansion of specialist schools to be abolished;
— an end to the culture of competition
between schools;
— the abolition of the school performance
tables;
— a review of the policy to expand
the number of selective schools;
— an end to selection within the state
schools sector on the basis of aptitude or ability;
— the abolition of school admission
forums;
— a review of the implications of the
14-19 agenda for the future of school admissions system.
MAIN SUBMISSION
1. NASUWT is pleased to be invited to contribute
to the work of the Work and Pensions Select Committee. NASUWT
represents the interests of over 211,000 teachers in schools and
colleges throughout the United Kingdom.
2. NASUWT believes that the Inquiry raises
a number of highly important issues relating to meeting the needs
of young people and their families and for teaching and learning.
In particular, the Inquiry has a number of wider implications
in terms of addressing issues of social inequality and social
justice arising from equality of access to and distribution of
school places.
3. The Association recognises that previous
international research has demonstrated the importance of socially
inclusive education systems for the standards achieved by young
people.
4. The existing body of research indicates
that low achievement can be tackled effectively by the ending
of hierarchical arrangements between schools, which is linked
to differential funding arrangements and differences in the mechanisms
by which schools select their pupil intake.
SELECTION
5. The Government has made clear the need
for Britain to compete on the global stage. New and higher order
knowledge and skills are needed within the workforce. Schools
have a vital role to play in terms of the nation's economic future.
6. NASUWT asserts that systems of school
organisation and admission must provide equal access to the highest
quality learning opportunities for all young people whilst contributing
to high expectations for all. There should be no return to the
days of the tripartite system that ensured a privileged education
for the few whilst limiting opportunities for the many.
7. It was in the 1960s that the then Labour
Government recognised how selection in education, and the operation
of the 11-plus system, was constraining the country's development.
It was a deeply damaging system which affected adversely the lives
of many young people branded as "failures" from an early
age.
8. The comprehensive model was an attempt
to end the elitism of the previous arrangements by guaranteeing
the highest quality learning opportunities for all young people.
Despite this worthy aspiration, progress towards the comprehensive
ideal has been hampered by the continued existence of grammar
and other selective schools, including grant maintained schools,
city technology colleges and academies.
9. The available evidence demonstrates that,
rather than helping to raise educational standards, the system
of selection undermines educational performance which is so central
to economic performance.
10. The Organisation for Economic Development
(OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) provides
a major comparative analysis of data on skills levels amongst
young people at the end of their compulsory schooling. Based on
an analysis of student achievement in 32 countries, the report
suggested that high educational standards were threatened within
those education systems where access to educational opportunity
for young people is based on selection on grounds of ability or
social, cultural or economic characteristic.
11. Indeed, a major conclusion of the OECD
was that high educational achievement for all young people could
be improved substantially by educating children from all social
and economic backgrounds together.
12. This raises important questions about
the purpose, validity and consequences of selection in education
systems, and raises further questions about the merits of parental
choice and differential funding arrangements for specialist schools.
13. One of the arguments made in favour
of the Government's plans to expand the number of specialist schools
is that such schools would remain in the state sector. However,
it should be borne in mind that specialist schools receive premium
funding levels per pupil compared to their non-specialist counterparts
and may not be bound by the same regulatory controls that apply
to maintained schools, for example in relation to the admission
and exclusion of pupils. Rather than promoting social inclusion
and excellence for all, the specialist schools developments have
exacerbated the problems of social segregation within our education
system.
14. But the problems do not end there. It
is also the case that the new breed of specialist schools are
able to exercise the right to select up to 10% of their pupil
intake on the basis of aptitude. 10% is a significant number in
its own right and one which could be increased in the future.
At the present time, research evidence has identified that the
freedoms available to some schools has resulted in an amplified
problem of covert selection and exclusion. In short, the creation
of "sink schools" is likely under the current arrangements.
15. The potential for comprehensive education
to deliver high standards and to tackle the achievement gap between
students is undermined by the "depressing" effect of
continued selective education arrangements.
To be clear, research evidence demonstrates
that pupils, educated in LEAs that have selective provisions,
appear less proportionately in the two highest categories of GCSE
performance whilst in greater proportions amongst those students
in the average and below average achievement categories.
16. Selection, therefore, suppresses educational
performance between schools, LEAs and between nation states. The
Association is concerned that despite the fact that the Government
has recognised these problems it nevertheless plans to increase
the number of specialist schools. NASUWT believes that this is
likely to exacerbate the problems of selection and undermine the
goal of creating a world class knowledge economy.
PARENTAL PREFERENCE
17. The converse of the practice of schools
selecting pupils, it has been suggested, is the policy of parental
preference, which was intended to provide the opportunity for
parents to select schools which they would want their children
to attend. In fact, the policy has been a fallacy.
18. It remains the case that many parents
find the admissions process confusing. Often, parents mistakenly
believe that a place will be available for their child at their
first preference school. Successive governments have fostered
a misguided belief amongst parents in the myth of parental choice,
exacerbated by the publication of school performance data in the
form of the league tables. In turn, this has encouraged a socially
and educationally divisive belief in the existence of "good
schools" and "bad schools", which has, in turn,
undermined educational standards by depressing pupil and parental
expectations and motivation at those schools deemed to be less
desirable. The Association recommends strongly that the divisive
policy to publish school performance tables be rescinded, whilst
taking appropriate steps to improve the transparency and equity
of the admissions system.
CO-ORDINATING
ADMISSIONS
19. LEAs play a key role in the co-ordination
of admissions. However, the effectiveness of local co-ordination
is also dependent upon the manner in which foundation and voluntary
aided schools operate.
Successive governments have established arrangements
which have encouraged a free market system in relation to school
admissions. Regulations which enable certain schools to apply
their own admission practices have caused considerable distress
and confusion to many pupils and their parents. The Association
does not believe that equality of educational opportunity and
high expectations can be fostered within an environment for school
admissions in which there are winners and losers. At the heart
of the Association's concerns is the impact of selection.
20. The Association believes that national
consistency is required to afford improved transparency and confidence
in the admissions system as a whole. This would also benefit young
people and their parents who need to make applications for a school
place in a neighbouring local authority area.
ADMISSIONS FORUMS
21. NASUWT has long questioned the merits
of the admissions forums. The Association believes that LEAs are
perfectly able to organise consultative mechanisms to address
the difficulties which may arise from the admission process and
to arrive at outcomes which consider local issues in the context
of the overall provision of the authority. The Association is
further concerned that issues of representation, transparency
and democratic accountability have been inadequately addressed
in the establishment of the forums. For these reasons, NASUWT
recommends that the admissions forums be abolished.
NUMBER OF
SCHOOL PLACES
22. The Association asserts that the formula
for determining the number of school places should have a high
level of transparency. It should take account of health and safety
requirements not only on overall capacity but also for specialist
curriculum provision. Governing bodies and heads should not be
allowed to admit more and more pupils into unsuitable accommodation.
NASUWT casework demonstrates that accidents are occurring in schools
when vast numbers of pupils are moving round the school, particularly
at change of lessons in corridors that were never built to accommodate
them. Overcrowding also contributes to pupil indiscipline.
23. At the same time, it should be recognised
that deregulation has intensified competition between schools
with deleterious effects. Schools continue to compete to attract
a limited number of pupils by seeking to develop a "market"
advantage over neighbouring schools. Competition between schools
has failed to deliver improved educational outcomes and has deflected
schools from their principal purpose: to ensure high educational
standards for all. This policy of competition continues to be
encouraged, as successive governments have extended the operational
freedoms of certain schools and sought to expand the number of
selective provisions. The Association believes that these measures
have not contributed to an open and fair admissions system, and
it might reasonably be assumed that the current system has produced
discriminatory outcomes. The practices of the new cadre of schools
such as the academies must be carefully monitored and scrutinised
to avoid any unintended adverse outcomes.
24. The Association is also minded to note
the new arrangements which are being established in a number of
LEAs for the provision of 14-19 education. Notwithstanding the
outcome of the Tomlinson review of the 14-19 phase, it is nevertheless
the case that the Learning and Skills Act 2000 and the Education
Act 2002 have encouraged schools to secure collaborative arrangements
with other local schools and colleges, not only to ensure the
delivery of a diverse curriculum but also to assure their future
financial viability. The present deliberations on the future arrangements
for school admissions, must take account of these developments,
where pupils might need to be enrolled at more than one institution
to receive access to their curriculum entitlement.
EQUALITY IMPACT
25. The absence of comprehensive, rigorous
and systematic ethnic monitoring and other equal opportunities
data has served as a major blockage to progressing equality of
pupil achievement, a point which has been made by a range of bodies,
including OFSTED and the Commission for Racial Equality. It is
essential that data are available to track the transition of students
(for example, those from black and minority ethnic groups) from
primary to secondary education, not only in terms of their overall
progress and achievement, but also in relation to the type and
"quality" of secondary schools to which they gain admission.
26. In this submission, the Association
has made the case that initiatives such as the establishment of
specialist schools may have operated counter to equal opportunities
considerations. The Government should report on the equality impact
of the specialist schools programme and other measures taken which
have altered local arrangements for comprehensive school admissions.
The Association also recommends that the potential equality impact
of all proposed Government programmes should be the subject of
report prior to their introduction.
5 September 2003
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