TOP HEAD CALLS FOR GOVERNMENT “CONTRACT” WITH INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS

2nd October 2006

The Government’s interest in partnership between state and independent education sectors is superficial, a leading independent school headmaster said today. It needs to be replaced by a formal service contract which recognises the real contribution independent schools make to the national economy

Andrew Boggis, chairman of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC), told members at the start of their annual conference in Manchester today that the Government invested far too little in partnership schemes linking the sectors.

“The money spent on the formal national state/independent schools partnership schemes rolled out across the country over seven years is less than the average revenue of just one large independent school. In 2004, funding was £1.4m, only slightly more than the furniture allowance for the national Learning & Skills Council!” said Mr Boggis.

“I do not disparage the many relatively small-scale, successful partnerships which have flourished under the auspices of the official Independent State Schools Partnership scheme. There have been huge gains on both sides for many schools with varied, energetic and enterprising initiatives which matter hugely to those involved, which are laudable and undeniably beneficial.”

But, he said, there was a wider issue which went to the heart of the relationship between independent schools and the Government.

“I believe that the Government’s view of partnership is not what partnership really ought to mean. It represents a superficial and one-way interest in bridge-building between the two sectors.

“Independent schools will not be abolished nor supplanted in any foreseeable future. Between us we educate seven to eight per cent nationally. But that figure rises to some 12 per cent of those sitting A Levels, accounting for 23.5 per cent of the A grades awarded, with the figure rising rapidly to 40, 50, 60 per cent of those gaining the top grades in several subjects: the sciences, mathematics, languages, classics.”

Mr Boggis added: “On those grounds alone one might reasonably expect the Government to appreciate, encourage, or even champion such schools, not as an optional extra, but as a crucial part of the national provision of Education UK.”

A distinction needed to be drawn, he said, between partnerships – which should be loose, informal or semi-formal, and local – and major service provision.

“If the Government is serious about enlisting our support to help improve the national supply of teachers of modern foreign languages, maths and science or the provision of these subjects in state schools, it should enter into a serious and properly funded service agreement with the independent sector, paying the market rate for what we have to offer,” said Mr Boggis.

He added: “Most of us are remarkably pragmatic; that is why we run seriously good independent schools. Now if the mixed economy is to become reality we need serious discussions with Government involving really serious money.”

Mr Boggis disclosed that he had proposed to ministers that the current cross-sector Partnership Forum should be replaced by a representative, high-level “Partnership Strategy Group” along with the promise of significant and really serious government funding. Its aim would be to support initiatives focused on one or two key priorities such as the teaching of maths, science and modern foreign languages or leadership development for headteachers as well as teachers at all levels in the profession.

Also in his speech Mr Boggis came to the defence of the beleaguered A-Level examination system. Stressing that his was a personal view, he said he believed that, with “a little more honest tweaking”, A Levels could continue to be a perfectly acceptable discriminator for university admission.

For more than 90% of candidates across the country A-Levels as constituted are a perfectly acceptable discriminator. Amongst the fine tuning measures, he suggested, should be the decoupling of AS from A2; the reduction or even elimination of coursework; the inclusion of more challenging questions; and the offer of various options of modular and terminal exams.

He added: “Above all, personally, I should prefer there to be one national system which we all support; not a separate independent schools exam system and let alone one with overt links to any particular named school or schools.”

On university admissions, Mr Boggis said that independent schools’ concerns had now shifted from worries regarding benchmarks and quotas to the proliferation of universities admissions tests.
Commenting on the political control of education, he said, politicians should be prepared to step back, leave micro-management to the experts and establish a standing cross-party commission on education. There now existed a consensus on the subject both within the independent school sector and along with commentators from other walks of life.

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