Government
drops academies legislation
The government is dropping a bill to convert all schools to academies,
announced in the Queen's speech. The Education Bill was based on a white paper
which initially suggested all schools in England would be compelled to become
academies. But the element of compulsion was dropped after protests from
councils and, instead, the bill encouraged schools to convert. Education
Secretary Justine Greening said no new legislation was required. "Our
ambition remains that all schools should benefit from the freedom and autonomy
that academy status brings. Our focus, however, is on building capacity in the
system and encouraging schools to convert voluntarily. No changes to
legislation are required for these purposes and therefore we do not require
wider education legislation in this session to make progress on our ambitious
education agenda," Ms Greening said. The move has been welcomed by
teaching unions with National Association of Head Teachers commenting "It
was, and remains, inappropriate to force good schools to convert when the
evidence of any benefit is so dubious," and the Association of Teachers
and Lecturers calling it "a victory for common sense.”
Finally a bit of good news from this shambles of a Government. Now lets push on and get them to drop the stupid and decisive idea to bring back grammar schools.
