YP Letters: Lessons to be learned over costly academies

From: Roger Backhouse, Orchard Road, Upper Poppleton, York.
Are school academies a force for good or not?Are school academies a force for good or not?
Are school academies a force for good or not?

THAT academy heads are often paid too much is no surprise (The Yorkshire Post, March 30). When further education colleges were taken out of local authorities, exactly the same happened. Salaries of college principals shot up to stratospheric levels for little extra work.

These who reach college or school leadership roles are usually well versed at climbing the greasy pole, adding their own touch of soft soap to persuade governors and the like that they really must be paid more.

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The academy programme is effectively a nationalisation of schools. The Department for Education is incapable of managing finances and salaries properly and is in any case too distant.

Nor does academy status mean any better management. One school I worked with on a play and sports project was highly rated by Ofsted but became an academy and then failed.

The academies programme is a costly failure and should be stopped.