The Government’s decision to approve a new college in Keighley is not logical or rational - Colin Booth

Meanwhile, just two weeks ago, the government went ahead with the announcement for capital investment into 15 new 16 to 19 Free Schools that are clearly and demonstrably not needed and have nothing to do with ‘Levelling Up’.

This was a politically driven decision which ignores any rational assessment of where investment should be prioritised. The Treasury has said that there is no new money available for capital investment in education. The recent decision to invest in unneeded selective and elitist Free Schools should therefore now be reversed and the money used where the evidence shows that it is urgently needed.

With the announcements to build elitist 16 to 19 Free Schools, the government made some choices about what they could afford, which fly in the face of any logical thought or rational policy. Just how much of a waste of public money the new 16 to 19 Free Schools will be can be estimated by looking at one example.

By increasing the number of selective schools and colleges that focus only on recruiting half of young people at age 16, we marginalise and undervalue the other half of our young people. And by institutionally separating those two halves from each other based on academic attainment, we are recreating at age 16, a system with the same fundamental flaws as grammar schools impose on 11-year-olds.

Moreover, we risk investing less and thinking less about those who don’t make the grade at age 16 and don’t enjoy the parental or other support to catch up. One of the new 16 to 19 Free Schools is a new 1,000 place sixth form in Keighley which will focus on A Levels. It will take until either 2026 or 2027 before the new sixth form is physically completed – the first young people through the doors will therefore currently be aged 12 or 13.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows that there are 4,240 children aged 10 to 14 in Keighley – an average of 848 per year group.

The proportion of young people in England starting a three or four subject A Level programme at age 16 has fallen over the last three years from 43 per cent to 40 per cent. The proportion of 16-year-olds from Keighley starting A Levels at age 16 is lower than the national average. If the national roll out of the new vocational T Level courses is successful, then some young people who start A Levels at age 16 now will move to start on T Level courses by 2026.

In 2021/22 there were a total of 1,510 students aged 16 to 18 on full time courses from the Keighley Central, Keighley East and Keighley West wards attending all school sixth forms inside and outside Keighley. Fewer than one third of the 1,510 were studying A Levels.

What all this tells us very clearly is that there aren’t, and never will be, anywhere close to 1,000 young people from Keighley who want or need to study A Levels. In order to fill the new 16 to 19 Free School in Keighley with A Level student, the new sixth form would need all of the local school sixth forms to close and for all of the 16 year olds in Keighley with five or more good GCSEs to choose to study A Levels at the new college. Even then it would not be full unless it also takes students currently studying at the existing Keighley College plus other local FE colleges and school sixth forms from outside Keighley.

The logical conclusion is that, either the new 16 to 19 free school will fail – or a number of other colleges and schools sixth forms will either close or be destabilised. Why would anyone want to plan future education provision and the opportunities for our young people in this way?

Writing in the Guardian, Justine Greening, former Conservative Secretary of State for Education said, “I can never accept that regional educational inequalities gaps cannot be closed. They can. Ultimately it’s a question of political will and vision. And who has it.”

So, which of the political parties has the will and the vision to create a clear long-term plan and make rational decisions about where we really need to invest in order to keep our children and young people safe and invest in their futures?

Colin Booth is CEO of Luminate Education Group.