ATL

Wales

It's time to show that the system in Wales works, says Dr Philip Dixon, ATL Cymru director.

The promotion of academies is already having an impact on England's education system. This experimentation, which could jeopardise the future prospects of many English youngsters, is reckless and based on little or no evidence about outcomes. It represents the triumph of ideology over truth.

Yet, looking from this side of Offa's Dyke, we could be rather complacent. We have a government that has clearly set its face against academies and free schools, and there is, at best, lukewarm interest in them from the two more right-wing opposition parties in Cardiff Bay.

But I think that we face a more subtle and yet deeper challenge.

In Wales we have kept the comprehensive system, with community schools supported by local authorities. We have done this because we believe in non-selective, state education, accountable to local electors. This is undoubtedly what the majority of parents in Wales want, as shown in the last election results for the Senedd. We are safe from the orgy of experimentation.

We now have to show that our system works, and works more effectively than the alternative being foisted on England. Wales can't just be different to England; it now has to be better.

We have to do this for two very good reasons. Firstly, because we owe it to our colleagues in England: they need the evidence that comprehensive education works better than the privatised academy alternative. Secondly, because the children of Wales deserve the best we can give them.