ATL

ATL - Conservatives' education plans are too simplistic

Commenting on the Conservatives' education plans, Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said:

"The Conservatives' plans are too simplistic. They seem to believe they can abolish failure by waving a magic wand and renaming a school an academy and putting a new head in place. They ignore the inconvenient truth that some of the academies are failing schools. Their plans would put an impossible burden on school heads who are working tremendously hard to turn around their schools.

"The Conservatives' proposals to simplify school inspections push all the right buttons, but fail to answer the key question - what is the point of Ofsted? Ofsted inspections add to the excessive bureaucratic accountability burden on schools, and duplicate functions locally and nationally.

"It is right that schools should be held accountable for teaching and learning, but they should not be held accountable for things over which they have no control. The Conservatives need to recognise that factors outside schools, such as family background and economic circumstances, account for about 85 per cent of the differences in pupil attainment.

"By keeping individual school inspections the Conservatives would continue to encourage schools to compete for the pupils who behave best and achieve most. Instead we need a system that encourages schools to collaborate so that all children can achieve their potential. That is why ATL will continue to call for Ofsted to stop inspecting individual schools, and for local authorities to be given a stronger role in supporting schools to do better and holding them to account locally."

Notes to editors:

1. The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) is an independent, registered trade union and professional association, representing approximately 160,000 teachers, headteachers, lecturers and support staff in maintained and independent nurseries, schools, sixth form, tertiary and further education colleges in the United Kingdom.
2. ATL exists to help members, as their careers develop, through first-rate research, advice, information and legal advice.
3. ATL is affiliated to the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE) and Education International (EI). The union is a member of the social partnership - working with the UK government, employers and other unions on education issues. ATL is not affiliated to any political party and seeks to work constructively with all the main political parties.