General Discussion

This is a copy of the letter written by Michael Pyke and published by The New European on the 19th of March, 2025: https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/letters-look-at-the-bigger-numbers-rachel/#

David Handley describes Peter Hyman's proposals for education reform as "impressive and radical" (letters, March 13th).  It would be more correct to describe them as necessary but seriously insufficient.  Everything Hyman says is true but he fails to address the underlying problem that our education system - both public and private - is based upon ideas developed in the 1860s.  Among the many problems that urgently need addressing are:

1. The social structure of the system both reflects and reinforces existing patterns of hierarchy, as it always has done.  This results in vast resources being narrowly focussed upon the education of the children of the rich, who continue to form a ruling caste within society, while the children of everyone else are obliged to attend schools all…

Below is the original version of Michael's letter, which was edited and published by The New Statesmen on the 19th of March, 2025: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2025/03/letter-of-the-week-the-state-of-education

The State of Education

I regularly enjoy Andrew Marr's insights into Westminster politics but his knowledge of state education seems rather limited - as is often the case with the privately educated.  He asserts that the Children's Well-being and Schools Bill is a product of a "union-driven agenda", without providing any evidence for this view or any explanation of what it is supposed to mean; he implies that the briefing against Bridget Phillipson, that she has listened "to all the wrong people" in "rolling back...academy reforms," is justified but again provides no evidence, while snobbishly referring to "comprehensive-school thinking" without, apparently, realising that the great majority of secondary academies are themselves comprehensive schools.

In fact, as Alasdair Macdonald wrote in the NS of February 28th, there…

By John Galloway With minor edits by Louise Vincent

Despite the assertions of both front benches in the House of Commons recently, any improvement in school standards is not as a direct result of the broadening of the academy schools system since Michael Gove gave it a fresh remit and impetus in 2012. This experiment in Neo-liberalism, bringing quasi-commercial principles into public services has had an impact on the state funded education system in England, but it’s not in the way our politicians would have us believe.

Had the Tory party remained in power they would have pushed for a 100% academised school system. As it is, just under 50% of English state schools are academies (although this varies by sector) of which 75% are secondary, and 40% are primary schools. If it were such a boost to outcomes, you would expect the sector to have expressed its confidence in…

Founded in 2004, The Mossbourne Community Academy (its current title) in Hackney was one of the first of Andrew Adonis's brainchild "City Academies". Under the leadership of Michael Wilshaw, its swashbuckling and very much "hands on" Headteacher, the school thrived and took just one generation of pupils to achieve "flagship" status by demonstrating the wrongheadedness of the (commonly held) idea that "nothing much" could be expected of inner-city pupils, when its sixth-formers obtained a startling number of places at leading universities, including Oxford and Cambridge. The incoming Conservative government soon began to put forward Mossbourne as justification for a large expansion of the academy movement and Wilshaw was rewarded in 2012 by being made OFSTED's Chief Inspector and by being given a knighthood. The success of the school led to the expansion of its academy trust into the Mossbourne Federation. A new academy, Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy, was opened…