It won’t have escaped people’s attention that the FT ran a piece on Conservative BSF policy this morning. Needless to say, the Tories are keen to point out where they think the programme has lost its way, and to float their ideas for improvement. Read beyond the obvious electioneering though and you find some useful signposts.
Significantly, the need to renew schools isn’t at the heart of the debate. What the Tories do question is the need for signature buildings with very high price tags. The alternative idea they’re floating is more re-use and refurbishment of existing property.
It’s hardly surprising. We’ve been predicting for a while that if funding is tight, we’ll see less glamorous architecture and more functional buildings. Paradoxically, less new build and more refurbishment would be good for a company that supplies educational ICT and learning spaces. If you can’t have a landmark new building, why not focus on what goes inside it? There are plenty of examples of schools making incremental improvements, and investing significantly to achieve them. (And, on a very utilitarian note, this kind of business is easier and cheaper to bid for.)
The FT piece also quotes Francis Maude, Shadow Cabinet Office Minister as saying, “What makes a school effective is teaching…” That’s unarguable: places of learning need great teachers; and those great teachers want resources and materials to work with. A simple bit of analysis we’re working on suggests that schools with good Ofsted reports are also schools that prioritise their investments in equipment and resources. Good schools make good customers.
There’s no doubt that that a Conservative government would look closely at the BSF scheme. For instance, they’ve already signalled that their preference is for new schools to take the form of independent academies, outside of local government control. Equally though, there’s no doubt that education would be a powerhouse department in a Tory administration - Michael Gove’s performance at the recent Party Conference made that clear.
Categories: BSF · UK policy
Back in July, David Cameron said he would adopt a “forensic” approach to education quangos (see the speech here). This week, the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) is suggesting something a little more muscular. Their report highlights the money that could be liberated for front-line spending if quangos were vigorously pruned.
There’s a lot to be said for focusing funding and decision making where it can be most effective, and that’s usually at the front line. That said, in their recent report on BSF, the National Audit Office (see our blog entry) made a strong case for the benefits of specialist support for complex activities. There’s little doubt that governments will continue to make use of officials – be they in Departments or in Non-Departmental Public Bodies – to implement complex policies.
Of real interest to RM though is this comment from the CPS’ comments on Becta (the educational ICT quango):
IT has become a mainstay of schools. Teachers should be trusted to develop their own plans as to how best to use technology in the classroom. If there is demand for a body of this kind to exist, it should make use of its intellectual property and expertise and operate as a private business; or as a charity.
More evidence that technology has a firm place in the classroom, and an endorsement of the role the private sector has to play
Categories: News · UK policy
George Osborne got plenty of publicity on his Today appearance and DEMOS speech yesterday. He focused on public service reform, with lots of references to education. The speech included this clear exposition of the structural reforms a Tory administration would set out to achieve.
That is why, as Michael Gove has set out, the next Conservative Government intends to act, and legislate early.
We will identify the weakest schools in the state system and liberate them from local bureaucratic control – handing them over to those organisations with a proven track record of educational success.
We will identify the strongest schools in the state system – and offer them the chance to leave local bureaucratic control, take control of every penny the bureaucracy currently spends on their behalf, and enjoy all the freedoms of academy status, if in return they also take an underperforming school under their wing, and use their new freedoms to help raise standards in that under-performing school.
And, most radically of all, we will allow new providers to set up state schools where there is demonstrable demand from parents.
We will, as they have in Sweden, give parents the ability to take the money the education bureaucracy currently spends on their behalf and allow them to take that money to the new school they want.
This is progressive education reform in action.
What this means for the educational supply industry isn’t clear. It does suggest that there’ll be a lot of activity in and around education though, and that should mean opportunities for organisations with something to contribute to teaching and learning.
There a full text of the DEMOS speech here.
Categories: News · UK policy
