5.4 Coalition

Question 1

Academies

Answer 1

• From 2010, all schools were encouraged to leave local authority and become academies.
• Funding was taken from local authority budgets and given directly to academies by central government.
• 2012: over 1/2 of all secondary schools had converted to academy status.
• Labour’s original city academies targeted disadvantaged schools and areas, the Coalition government, by allowing any schools to become an academy.

Question 2

Free Schools

Answer 2

• Set up and run by parents, teachers, faith organisation or businesses rather than the local authority.
• Supporters claim they improve educational standards by increasing parentocracy.

Question 3

Sweden and BFS

Answer 3

• Allen (2010): Argues that research from Sweden, where 20% of schools are free schools, shows that they only benefit children from highly educated families.
• Sweden’s international educational ranking: fallen since their introduction.
• Other critics claim that they lower standards.
• DoE: Found that at BFS only 6.4% of pupils qualified for free meals compared with 22.5% of pupils across the city as a whole.

Question 4

Fragmented Centralisation

Answer 4

• Ball (2011): argues that promoting academies and free schools has led to both increased fragmentation and increased centralisation over educational provision in England.

Question 5

Fragmentation

Answer 5

• The comprehensive system is being replaced by a patchwork of diverse provision, much of it involving private providers.
• This leads to greater inequality in opportunities.

Question 6

Centralisation of control

Answer 6

• Central government alone has the power to allow or require schools to become academies or allow free schools.

Question 7

Policies aimed at reducing inequality include:

Answer 7

• Free school meals: for all children in reception, year one and year two.
  The Pupil Premium: Money that schools receive for each pupils from a disadvantaged backgrounds.

Question 8

Counter to the Coalition reducing inequality

Answer 8

• Ofsted (2012): Found that in many cases the Pupil Premium is not spent on those it is supposed to help.
• As part of the government’s ‘austerity’ programme, spending on education has been cut. (spending on school bushellings was cut by 60%)
• Sure Start centres were closed, EMA was abolished and university tuition fees tripled to 9,000 a year.
• Critics argue that cutting these has reduced opportunities for working-class pupils.