Statement on school accountability report

7 January 2010

Voice: the union for education professionals has commented on the children, schools and families committee's report on school accountability (published 7 January 2010).

General secretary Philip Parkin said: "Once again the committee has hit the nail on the head – recognising what is obvious and practical to school staff but which the government cannot or will not see.

"Schools are being smothered by a suffocating tide of initiatives, targets and tests from a headline-obsessed government and inspected by a creaking, over-blown bureaucratic regime.

"Schools are crying out to get away from teaching-to-tests and for a 'period of stability and a chance for their own efforts to improve performance to bear fruit,' as Barry Sheerman so eloquently puts it.

"Teaching and support staff are professionals and should be treated as such, and allowed to use their own judgement and training, rather than being patronised, herded and force-fed by targets, tasks and toolkits from Whitehall and Ofsted.

"I am delighted that the committee believes that the proposed 'school report card' 'should not carry an overall score'. Voice agrees that 'a report card can never be a full account of a school's performance'. Like any institution or organisation, a school has strengths and weaknesses across the many aspects of its work, which is about more than just test and target results.

"Schools are already the most over-inspected, over-accountable, minutely examined institutions in the country so a 'B plus, could do better' style of mark would be shallow, pointless and meaningless."

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