Lewisham: Hands off our schools.....

[cockneyrebel]

I know this isn't Sydenham but thought people might be interested.....

Lewisham: Hands off our schools: Labour Mayor advocates privatisation of public services....

Lewisham Council and the Labour controlled cabinet have made it clear, that despite vocal opposition to their plans, they are determined to hand over the management and control of our schools to unaccountable private organisations....writes Eleanor Davies...

Yet again we have witnessed another sham ‘consultation’ over the decision to hand over Monson primary school to Habersdashers Askes Hatcham College (HAHC) Academy. Not content with their recent acquisition, Knights Academy, HAHC want to expand their empire into the primary sector by creating an all through 3-18 school.

Labour argue that HAHC will raise standards and that such a move will increase the opportunities of children at Monson to attend their ‘local’ secondary school. Every parent who has lived in the shadow of HAHC’s selective admissions system knows that the Governors at HAHC do not have the interests of Monson children at their centre of their agenda. If they cared about improving the life chances of local working class children, then they would take on the responsibility of educating them. Instead, they maintain their ‘academic standards’ by encouraging competition for places and use their advantageous position in this ‘market’ to pick and choose the students they deem worthy - students that will maintain their position in the league tables.

As long as schools like HAHC and Prendagast have the right to choose who they take and who they turn away, we will continue to experience enormous inequalities between schools. As has already happened at Knights Academy, governing bodies will use their control over admissions to pass on the responsibility of working with more challenging young people to community schools, by refusing to take them or through exclusions and explusions.

It is a damning indictment of a Council with no confidence in its own abilities, that it has decided to hand over the running of education to organisations that have little or no real experience of working with many of Lewisham’s diverse community. HAHC and the proposed federation controlled by Prendagast School (which will take over Crofton and the new school planned at Lewisham Bridge) cannot guarantee that they will act in the interests of all the young people in the borough. They will put their own interests above those of the community as a whole.

These proposed federations are only one step away from the development of Trusts. The Education and Inspections Act 2007 is explicit in calling for the break up of local authority control of education. Trusts will be able to control admissions and will take into ownership the assets of the schools they manage – they are academies in all but name. Lewisham Council is happy to hand over public assets worth millions to unaccountable ‘Trusts’. After all, selling off our public services is something that Mayor Bullock has some experience of. He has presided over the privatisation of housing and other council services.

Labour’s neo-liberal agenda

These proposals have nothing to do with improving the opportunities of young people in the borough. How can the threatened closure of excellent schools like the primary school at Brent Knoll or Meadowgate improve the life chances of young people with autism and other special needs? It can’t and they know it.

How can increasing selection and competition between schools guarantee that all children have access to high quality education at their local community school? It won’t and they know it.

At the heart of these changes is a political agenda to open up public services to the private sector so that they can make a profit. That is why the VT Group, a subsidiary of Vosper Thornycroft (a ship building and engineering firm who receives lucrative military contracts from the Ministry of Defence) is laughing all the way to the bank. They have been awarded the contract to rebuild schools in Lewisham and Greenwich as well as the management of the buildings. The VT Group boasts on its website that the contract value will amount to £400 million over the next 25 years where it will have 50% control of the management of school buildings across the borough. They speak of the possibilities of expanding their role in education services on a national scale.

What we are seeing here is the handing over of public services to companies whose main incentive is to extract profit. We have already seen the impact of privatisation on the rail and in the utilities – rising costs, poor quality services and no means by which we can bring these parasitic firms to account.

What will this mean for our children’s education? As we have seen with PFI schemes, it is working class people that end up paying - inflated building costs, the driving down of wages and conditions of workers in the name of ‘efficiency’ and a complete lack of accountability and ‘corporate responsibility’ when things go wrong.

We will have no say if VT Group decide to errect mobile phone masts on the roofs of our schools, or rent the school for private use rather then letting teachers run homework clubs after school. If they want to offer a contract to McDonalds to run the kitchens they will have the right to go ahead with such ‘procurements’ and ultimately they could have a say in how a school is run, what might be taught and how.

So where next?

The campaign Defend Education in Lewisham has been at the forefront in mobilising parents, teachers and community activists to demand the Council reject these policies. However the Council have refused to listen to us. They have ignored the findings of consultations that overwhelming rejects their proposals.

Councillors from the Liberal Democrats and Green Party have failed to mount any opposition to Labour – they have supported every one of their attacks. In reality whether we defeat these proposals will not be determined by votes in the Council Chamber or in Cabinet and Scrutiny Committees.

Our strength lies amongst the community in Lewisham - parents who have refused to accept the lies and deceit and workers in education who have the power to resist the privatisation of our public services. Teachers will be directly affected by these proposals – redundancies and closures must be fought. But we need to do more than that.

This attack on education will affect everyone and we need a borough wide response. Public sector unions such as the NUT, Unison and GMB need to discuss how we can link up and take the sort of action that will force the council to reconsider their plans. A day of action in defence of public services is a bold and ambitious idea, but one that should be discussed by key activists in the unions. With threatened closures of services at Lewisham Hospital and continued attacks on other council services in the borough there is the possibility of linking up across the sectors.


For comprehensive education

Education does need a radical re-organisation in Lewisham, but our starting point should be on the basis of what we need. Investment in our schools is required but it must remain under our control. Only then can we guarantee that resources are planned according to the needs of all children. If the government can find millions to line the pockets of construction companies, then why can’t it hand over the capital directly to an elected local government who could plan and share resources rationally across the borough? Rather than giving control to private organisations like HAHC and the VT Group, we should be demanding the Council take these schools and services back under local control where we can decide democratically how our schools should be run.

An end to league tables and the endless culture of testing, smaller class sizes, more teachers and the development of a relevant and diverse curriculum would have a profound impact on developing the potential of young people. These are the issues that would make a real difference.

Gordon Brown is a key architect in the privatisation of public services and this Government has made it clear there will be no let up. A united campaign that brings parents, teachers, students and other public sector workers into action, will be key in the coming struggles against privatisation.

[dickp]

please summarise.

[Annie]

To cut a very long story short?

to be honest i started to read it and ran out of energy.

[nasaroc]

As an ex-comprehensive school teacher, I'm totally committed to ideas of improving our education system and giving every child the very best education we possibly can.

But look honestly at what our education system - the one we are being called on to preserve above - has achieved. Almost half of local children leave school without achieving 5 or more GCSE passes; in many local schools over 30% of eleven year olds fail basic English and Maths literacy tests.

Of course, if we followed the proposed programme of "an end to league tables ...and testing" we wouldn't know about these failures and they could then be safely brushed under the carpet and we could pretend everything is hunky dory.

It's obvious that initiatives like City Academies have greatly improved schooling for many poor inner city children

What the manifesto above is all about is preserving the status quo and protecting educators’ jobs. It totally fails to acknowledge that there’s anything wrong with the education system as it now operates. Could, I wonder, the poor performance of Lewisham's education system be anything to do with the way the education system is organised?

[castiron73]

There have been very good documentaries highlighting the risks of using private companies to run schools, most concentrating on the way the religious beliefs of the businessmen owners can be shoehorned into the curriculum in return for a few quid for a new building, like Sir Peter Vardy who insists children are taught creationism.

League tables and endless tests have done nothing to help children - good schools get better, less perfect schools are deserted by (mainly middle class) parents who want to give their children the 'best chance'. Now, a school is deemed failing by parents if less than 90 per cent of the children pass tests. But even if 90 per cent fail, as long as your child leaves with the results he/she deserves why does it matter that not every one of his classmates is academic? Get rid of faith schools, get rid of academies and stop selection by stealth.

All the extra admin is driving teachers away. Let the schools have more power. Let's stop wasting money on interactive whiteboards and the like.

Mind you, I saw a minister on Question Time deplore the fact that 50 per cent of schools are below average. With idiots like that trying to run things what chance do children have?