PAT concerned by ‘personalised’ services agenda

19 March 2007

The Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) has expressed concerns about aspects of the Prime Minister’s Building on Progress policy review and the DfES’s pilot of its Making Good Progress scheme announced today (19 March 2007).

 PAT General Secretary Philip Parkin said: “We welcome initiatives to offer one-to-one tuition, involve parents in their children’s education and offer extended school services.

“However, there  could be serious practical difficulties in some of the ideas in the review . There may also be a danger of damaging the reputation of schools or disadvantaging some of the people Building on Progress is supposed to help.

“Allowing online ‘satisfaction ratings’ of schools or posting children’s progress on school Web sites could be counter-productive.  People are generally more motivated to complain than to praise. Those who were satisfied might not bother to give ratings, while less well-off parents might not be online.

“Parents with a grudge against a school, because, for example, their child had been disciplined for being disruptive, or excluded or former pupils wanting to cause mischief, could post damaging comments.

“Giving pupil data online disenfranchises those parents who do nor have Internet access or the necessary computer skills or whose first language is not English.

"We are in favour of putting schools at the heart of their communities.  However, if these schemes are to work in practical terms, the Government must back its good intentions with the funding and training necessary to provide and equip the skilled education and childcare professionals needed to put these plans into action.

“Offering individual tuition – which features in both Building on Progress and Making Good Progress – would be a real boost for pupils who need extra help – either because they have special educational needs or are disadvantaged in some other way, or because they have a particular gift, talent or aptitude.

“Such tuition could also create a more level playing field between state and private education.

“PAT would not like to see pupils in the Making Good Progress pilot being ‘hot-housed’ into taking tests in individual subjects at too early a stage to the exclusion of access to a broad curriculum. We do not want to see more tests or more school targets as these would fly in the face of the more common sense measures being proposed. 

“We hope that if  the pilot proves to be successful, the Government will commit sufficient resources  to roll the project out to benefit pupils across the country. 

“The Government needs to think carefully about how such ideas would work in practice.”