Choice and education

At a debate attended by pensions minister Malcolm Wicks and Conservative policy chief David Cameron, consumers' rights organisation Which? has been challenging government policy on improving public services through extending choice.

 

New Which? research found that the government had failed to listen to what the public want on key areas like health, food, education and pensions.

 

Which? was highlighting the gap between the choices offered by government on key public services and the ones which people actually want.

 

Stakeholder Response: Which?

 

Graham Vidler, head of policy, said: "The choices open to many parents are not the choices they want or expect to be making. They feel they are competing in a process in which failure will condemn their child to a sub-standard education. 

 

"Parents want more personal support during the process, but above all, they want access to a good local school.  The message from parents is clear: the government must concentrate on raising standards in underperforming schools."

 

Stakeholder Response: Secondary Heads Association

 

A spokesman for the Secondary Heads Association said: "In our current pre-election mode, all sorts of magic powers have been ascribed to school choice and diversity. However, the government preoccupation with choice is misleading and, in many parts of the country, irrelevant. In rural areas and smaller towns there is only one secondary school so there is effectively no choice of schools. Parents are not going to send their children to a school an hour away just so they can have an specialism in technology.

 

"The choice that parents want is not between a rainbow of schools of different types, with different specialisms, different providers, different structures. Parents want a good local school, offering diverse provision to cater for the needs of their individual children."

 

"The choice of school for five years of education is very different from the choice of a hospital for a knee operation.  In fact, parents can express a preference, not a choice, and the satisfaction of their preference depends on the availability of places. 

 

"Where places are limited, the reality is that schools choose children, not children schools."