Coalition minister's plan for oversight of academies
Commenting on reports that the Secretary of State plans to install new regulators or chancellors working alongside regional headteacher boards to oversee academies and free schools, Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers' union, said:
“It is shameful that the Secretary of State for Education has taken so long to accept that academies and free schools, charged with the education of children and young people and in receipt of billions of pounds of public money, require oversight and scrutiny.
“However, the remedy he proposes seriously compounds rather than addresses the problem.
“The proposal for regional regulators working with boards of headteachers is another example of the Coalition circumventing and subverting local democratic processes and disenfranchising local communities from having a voice in the local provision of public education.
“Scrutiny by boards of headteachers, elected by headteachers, will lead only to cosy coteries of headteachers representing the views of headteachers.
“Once again, this is yet another proposal which will do nothing to protect the interests of children and young people or the public.”
