Education, Education, Education: Reforming England’s Schools
by Andrew Adonis (Biteback Publishing Ltd, London, 2012)
Andrew Adonis was the principal driving force behind the
education reforms of New Labour, his main contribution being the development of
the academy system to improve the standards of failing comprehensives. This
book describes how and why he arrived at this conclusion, and what he believes
is the way forward.
The child of a Greek-Cypriot immigrant brought up in a
Camden Children’s Home, Adonis’s father and social worker gained him a place at
Kingham Hill Boarding School in Oxfordshire.
His final headteacher David Shepherd urged him to try his old college
Keble in Oxford, where he studied history, before eventually becoming a
historian and lecturer himself.
Andrew Adonis became an education
advisor in Tony Blair’s Labour governments after 1997, and inspired by his early experiences writes in the
foreword:
“All this gave me a burning sense that education matters
fundamentally. That inspirational teachers, and all who work with children,
matter fundamentally. That institutions matter fundamentally. And that values,
sometimes through religion, matter fundamentally.”
Lord Adonis puts forward a twelve point plan for reforming
schools in England. There are a number of ideas in here which I can agree with,
subject specialism for teachers through most of the school system, greater
democracy and citizenship (including votes at sixteen), greater provision at
the pre-school stage, and streamlining of governing bodies.
He doesn’t hold back, stating that in the eighties and early
nineties comprehensives were ‘palpably and seriously failing.’ But he also
holds himself up as a radical who is fighting against the tide, quoting
Machiavelli from The Prince, “For the initiator has the enmity of all who would
profit by the preservation of the old institutions and merely lukewarm
defenders in those who would gain by the new ones.”
He embarked on his mission to transform what he saw as the ‘secondary
modern comprehensive,’ schools he believed little better at best, and in too
many cases no better, than the secondary moderns they had replaced. But he
faced obstacles, especially from those involved in schools on a daily basis.
His concern was, “How to end the bureaucratic levelling-down culture within the
teacher unions, the local education authorities and the education department
itself?”
He felt the Thatcher government’s Grant Maintained Schools
had failed because they had weak leadership, were in the firm grip of Local
Education Authorities and ‘militant’ NUT involvement. They were not improving, the
initiative placed little emphasis on setting up new schools and there were no
new governance models.
Indeed, it was the little known City Technology Colleges
(CTC) that impressed him, the key being they were independent, had
sponsor/promoters, were not for profit, and non-fee paying. That they had been
largely ignored by the outgoing Conservative government, meant that Labour in
1997 were not under any pressure to abolish them, which seems to have suited
Adonis down to the ground.
Quality of leadership is vital in any organisation whether
school, business or government for that matter as he rightly says about
comprehensives, if these things weren’t already in place before taking on CTC
status, then merely renaming them wasn’t going to solve the problems.
Adonis seems to see academies as the only way to improve
educational standards in underperforming schools saying, “It is urgent that all
underperforming schools, primary as well as secondary, become academies.”
However, he is uncritical of how the coalition government reversed
the policy, when instead of concentrating on the failing schools they set about
turning outstanding schools into academies. Although this was the end game of
Adonis’s policy he fails to defend it, as there remain some 650 failing
comprehensives which you’d expect him to believe were the priority.
One of the big concerns with academies was how they would
affect surrounding schools, taking away funding for these big new projects. He
is very dismissive of these, saying that the evidence shows surrounding schools
raised their standards to compete. However, he doesn’t say how these schools
were doing before the academy came into being, whether they were good schools,
or improving, as otherwise they would have been academy candidates themselves.
Adonis does not really acknowledge the doubts that parents
and indeed many educational professionals have with sponsors, principally that as academies are outside of
local authority control, these sponsors could have a counter-productive
influence on the curriculum and the running of the schools.
He also doesn’t really address another reason for opposition
and how experience, as well as ideology will have affected views. He writes
extensively about the failures of past reforms but doesn’t consider whether this
is what worried opponents, another expensive and complicated reform, that would
do little or nothing to improve education or the life prospects of children.
Andrew Adonis supports the free schools which Michael Gove
has introduced, seeing them as, ‘academies without a predecessor state school.’
He completely avoids telling us that free schools can be established in any building
that is not necessarily fit for purpose, and that they do not have a
requirement to hire qualified teachers.
He does not mention at all the New Schools Network which has
the sole responsibility for deciding whether a free school has a viable
business plan and as we have seen in recent weeks, there are faults, as schools
can have their funding withdrawn very late, meaning parents and local authorities
have to find places very close to the new term. Whatever you may think of the
academy system, and the way it’s set up, Andrew Adonis can’t be accused of not
caring about, or thinking about how it should work, and went about it with
rigour.
One theme that Andrew Adonis keeps going back to is the
small number of graduates that come into teaching from Oxbridge and the Russell
group universities, seeming to believe that only top graduates make good
teachers. He heavily promotes the Teach First model, a private charity which
selects apparently quality graduates from the top universities. They are then
put through an intensive period of summer training, then placed in schools in
deprived areas, on a two-year placement.
The principles of Teach First are laudable, and they seem to
be very good at what they do, though currently it is they, and not the school,
that pick who goes where, which Adonis feels should change. If I have one bone
to pick, it’s that in his promotion of Teach First, Lord Adonis should declare
an interest and mention he’s a founding ambassador and trustee of the charity.
As a member of the Labour Party and someone who works in
education, I was very keen to read this book and I certainly found it very interesting. The journey to academies is painstakingly described,
but he does tend to gloss over some of the problems, and like a true evangelist,
focusses on the positive, whilst downplaying the negatives.
The idea of Andrew Adonis’s I am most enthusiastic about is
that specialist teaching should not only be guaranteed, but should start
sooner. I wouldn’t go as far as to start it in year one, I think for the first
three to four years of schooling other things are as important as academic
education. I would start specialising at year four, or five at the latest, and
encourage a middle-school system. Many academies in the early days set themselves
up for the 14-19 range, and this would be ideal I believe.
The Conservatives in government will love this book, because
it supports their ideas that it is by involving those considered the drivers of
the economy is the best way to go. The left will generally hate it, especially
those who were against the academy idea from the outset, as it confirms all
their prejudices, not only about New Labour but also about the possible dangers
of allowing companies to take over schools.
The twelve point plan is somewhat utopian, especially in the
idea of schools as community hubs, but it is only by aiming for the best, and
constantly striving for it, that you have any chance of attaining it. I admire
Andrew Adonis’ zeal, and his genuine goal to improve the education in English
schools. He tends towards a one size fits all approach, which is ironic as that
doesn’t seem to be his intention. Schools can’t all be the same, because the
children aren’t.
The book sells itself as a series of radical reforms by a ‘professional
optimist,’ something anybody seeking to reform education in England needs to
be.
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