The success of Britain’s 11-month-old Tory-Libdem government’s bid to create new ‘free schools’ — funded by the state, but able to set conditions for staff, pick and choose from the national curriculum, and so on — rests on its ability to wrest power from local authorities and give it to community groups. The policy is a key element of prime minister David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’, but suffers from the same difficulty as the overall project: pushing through devolution in a time of austerity is tricky.
The aim of free schools, based on American and Swedish models, is to give parents more choice and promote competition. New schools can be established by parents, teachers, charities, religious outfits, universities, private schools and not-for-profit groups. They will be given public funds based on how many pupils enrol, with those from poor families attracting a premium.
Despite an initial flurry of interest — more than 250 groups have applied to Michael Gove, the education secretary, to set up schools — the scheme is proving a hard grind. So far just nine institutions have been approved to open their doors in September. February 11 was the application deadline for others seeking to open this autumn.
One of the main reasons for the slow progress is the difficulty of finding premises. The rules governing what constitutes a suitable building for a state-funded school are far more rigid than for private schools, where lessons may — and often do — take place in incongruous surroundings such as hastily converted bedrooms.
Gove has set aside just £50 million (Rs.365 crore) for capital funding so far, most of which has been spent. Critics accuse him of diverting these funds from existing schools: he has cancelled a big programme to rebuild or refurbish every secondary school in England. Achieving his aim of establishing hundreds of new schools by 2015 might require reform of the planning system, as well as additional funds.
Sadly a consultation on relaxing the rules has identified another problem: free schools risk pitting residents opposed to any increase in traffic, noise and litter against parents desperate to secure a decent education for their children.
Gaddafi shadow over LSE
Sir howard davies resigned as director of the London School of Economics (LSE) on March 3 even as the school’s governing council has launched an independent inquiry into LSE’s relationship with Libya and Saif Gaddafi, son of the country’s Brother Leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi.
A statement released on March 3 following an emergency meeting of the LSE’s council confirmed that Sir Howard has stepped down. The council stated it had accepted his resignation “with great regret and reluctance”. An independent external inquiry will be conducted by Lord Woolf, former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales and former chairman of the council of University College London.
According to a report published in The Times (March 3), US diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks indicate that the university had secured a deal to train hundreds of future members of the dictatorship’s elite. The latest revelations follow controversy over a £1.5 million (Rs.10.8 crore) donation to LSE by the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation in 2009 and allegations of plagiarism over sections of a Ph D thesis completed at the LSE by Saif Gaddafi. The Times also reported that Sir Howard had admitted that a fee was paid to the university in return for his advice to Libya’s sovereign wealth fund on how to invest the country’s oil billions.
(Excerpted and adapted from the Times Higher Education)