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Nick Seaton: Politicians refuse to learn the lessons over big schools
OVER recent weeks, a stream of press reports has highlighted shortages of primary school places. It's not just desirable school places that are in short supply, but school places of any kind. Earlier this year, a survey found 38 local authorities out of 150 were struggling with unanticipated demand. Another 20 or so were unable or unwilling to provide figures. This month, it was reported that London is short of 50,000 primary places.
Now we hear that record numbers of primary children are being taught in schools with more than 800 pupils. More than 14,000 young children are now in these large schools – an increase of more than 50 per cent since the present government took office. Yet smaller schools, and smaller class sizes, was at the heart of Labour's 1997 election manifesto when Tony Blair, among others, criticised relentlessly the record of the previous Tory administration before declaring, famously, that his three political priorities would be "education, education, education".
Can't politicians and their officials ever get it right?
These reports are not as contradictory as they may seem. Large schools are usually created by merging smaller schools. Too often under the present regime, that means effective, popular schools are closed and then sold off. But are such decisions sensible? Who knows what the future may bring?
The real villains here are Labour's Building Schools for the Future (BSF) and its Primary Capital programmes controlled by Children's Secretary Ed Balls, the Normanton MP and one of the Prime Minister's key lieutenants.
Using billions of pounds of taxpayers' money, Whitehall politicians and officials have cleverly lured local authorities into grandiose school rebuilding programmes which, as often as not, have alienated rather than pleased parents.
Parents across the country are in conflict with their local authorities.
So what is going wrong? Quite simply, local authorities have stopped listening to local people. Encouraged by ministers, officials from Whitehall are setting the ground rules, while local authorities take the flak when voters rebel. They've no-one to blame but themselves.
A few days ago, a Bedfordshire council meeting was lobbied by parents incensed by plans to close about a dozen of their local schools. The parents gathered more than 10,000 signatures opposing the plans. Councillors still voted by 19 to 17 to ignore the parents' wishes.
As part of a county-wide reorganisation, again fuelled by BSF, Conservative-controlled Suffolk County Council has been planning to close Clare Middle School and compel 11-year-olds to make a 20-mile round trip each day to expanded secondary schools in Haverhill and Sudbury.
Helped by local volunteers and their MP, Tim Yeo, the parents have produced a much more sensible (and less costly) plan to keep Clare Middle School open and turn it into an 11-16 secondary school by adding a few classrooms for older pupils – for which there is ample space. They, too, were snubbed by their local authority.
At a meeting with shadow schools minister Nick Gibb, who hopes to be in government soon, the parents have now been advised to explore the possibility of turning Clare Middle School into one of the Conservative's first new state-funded, parent-run schools. A ray of hope indeed.
But why has Tim Yeo had to write to Suffolk's cabinet member for children's services urging him to "use (his] authority" to ensure the closure plans aren't rushed through? Why has the MP had to issue a press release saying he hopes the local authority "will not take any steps which could jeopardise the chances of this genuinely excellent project getting off the ground"? Parents don't want huge, impersonal schools, or longer journeys to and from school. Nor do they want massive, ill-considered school re-organisations just because local councillors can't resist the opportunity to spend hard-earned taxpayers' pounds.
The construction industry knows that Labour's profligate BSF programme is probably doomed. When will local authorities catch up with reality, and respond to their voters' needs?
Nick Seaton, from York, is chairman of the Campaign for Real Education.
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