NUT reaction to Select Committee Report

27 January 2006

Commenting on the Education Select Committee’s Report on the Government White Paper: Higher Standards, Better Schools for All, Steve Sinnott, NUT General Secretary, said:

“The Select Committee’s Report is scathing about Government’s mistakes in spin as well as substance. 

“The case for marketisation and independent Trust Schools has not been made; a fact fully highlighted by the Select Committee.

“The Select Committee is right to highlight the fact that the Government’s spin on Trust Schools has obscured positive proposals on personalisation and pupil behaviour.

“The Minority Report opportunistically exploits the dangers in the Government’s proposals.   The majority of the Select Committee is quite right in proposing that local authorities have new duties to prevent the potential for social exclusion and segregation which would arise from the Government’s proposals.

“The Minority Report’s rejection of this says as much about the future direction of the Opposition’s education policies as it does about the Select Committee’s Report.

“I welcome the Select Committee proposals to remove selection by aptitude.  There is no distinction between academic and aptitude selection.  This has enabled those who wish to introduce selection by the back door to exploit this obvious fact.

“The Select Committee is right to tackle the potential chaos which the Government’s proposals on admissions would cause and to propose retaining community school status.   At the core of the Education Bill must be a common admissions policy in each local authority which applies to all schools and which parents and teachers believe to be fair.

“Teachers and parents will back the Select Committee’s view that the Government’s proposals for school expansion will give unfair advantages to schools with the capacity to expand their intake.   The White Paper’s proposals on popular school expansion could lead to widespread school closure which could most damage the poorest communities.”