PRIVATISATION UPDATE
THE LATEST NEWS AND INFORMATION ON
ACADEMIES,
FREE
SCHOOLS
AND
PRIVATISATION ISSUES FROM THE NUT’S
PRIVATISATION IN EDUCATION UNIT
NUMBER 39, DECEMBER 2013 - JANUARY
2014
ACADEMIES CAMPAIGNS
No to Colmore Academy
A group of concerned parents have set up a campaign to oppose the decision by
governors at Colmore Junior and Infant Schools in Kings Heath, Birmingham to
‘investigate seeking academy status’. Parents have been given until 31 January 2014 to
send in comments but no parents’ meeting has so far been arranged by the school.
Colmore parents are being encouraged to contact the school to make sure it holds a
parents’ meeting before the end of January.
You can follow ‘No to Colmore Academy’ on twitter (twitter.com/notocolmoreacad) and
facebook (www.facebook.com/groups/232542540255361/)
Barking and Dagenham Council takes on Gove over forced academies
Barking and Dagenham councillors have voted unanimously to ballot the parents of any
school that is consulting on whether or not to become an academy – through choice or
by direction. This is a direct challenge to attempts by the Secretary of State for
Education, Michael Gove, to force schools to become academies.
This decision comes as parents, staff and the local community are rallying round
Dorothy Barley Junior School in Dagenham to defend it from forced academisation. The
governing body at Dorothy Barley Junior School has been replaced with an Interim
Executive Board (IEB) appointed directly by Michael Gove. The Board includes two
members of the REAch2 Academy Trust, the private education provider that is seeking
to take over management of the school.
Dorothy Barley Junior School staff recently voted unanimously to oppose forced
conversion to academy status at a packed joint union meeting. At a public meeting
sponsored by local trade unions on Tuesday 10 December, parents and carers
welcomed the news that Barking and Dagenham council is holding a ballot of parents
and pledged to take the struggle to Michael Gove’s door at the Department for
Education.
The Chair of the Dorothy Barley Junior school IEB, Andrew Spearman, has stated that
the results of the ballot will not form part of the statutory consultation.
1
Norton Governors resign
Two governors at Norton Primary School in Stoke have resigned in protest at moves to
turn the school into an academy. The school was put in special measures in June but
Denise Keen and Duncan Walker allege there has been a 'conflict of interests' in the
choice of nearby Newstead Primary School as sponsor. Norton head teacher Maxine
Rizk, who was only appointed in September, was the former deputy head at Newstead.
Read more at: www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Norton-Primary-School-governors-resignacademy/story-20247670-detail/story.html#ixzz2neOffSQm
Cavell governors demand reinstatement
Governors at Cavell Primary School in Norwich who were removed by the County
Council when the school was rated as inadequate by Ofsted have claimed that they
should be re-instated after a follow up Ofsted report praised recent improvements.
Former chair of governors Rob Anthony said the report vindicated the governors’ view of
the school, and added: “This raises many questions about the council’s decision to
remove the governors and attempt to force the school to become an academy. It is
obvious from the report this is just not necessary. I believe it is time for the IEB to resign
and allow the governors to return so they can finish the job of getting the school out of
special measures as soon as possible.”
However, Norfolk County Council, are claiming that the improvements show that the
decision
to
impose
an
IEB
was
right.
Read
more
at:
www.edp24.co.uk/news/education/ofsted_praises_improvements_at_cavell_primary_sch
ool_as_campaigners_fight_moves_to_make_it_an_academy_1_3016437
Campaign group to fight Bury forced academy
A parent action group has been set up to fight Government plans to force Elton
Community Primary School in Bury to become an academy after the school was placed
in special measures in May. Elton Primary head teacher, Tony Emmott, said: “There is
no convincing evidence to prove that enforced academy status is the right option for
Elton Primary. As a self-improving school, we want to be given the opportunity to come
out of special measures and retain our status as a community primary school. We value
the overwhelmingly positive support from our parents who know our school extremely
well.”
The group, named Save Elton Primary School, organised a protest in front of the school
when it was visited by Gena Merrett, one of the DfE’s academy brokers, on 25
November. Around 100 protestors including parents councillors and pupils, greeted her
with chants including “Academy, no way”, “What do we want, consultation” and “We love
Elton”. (Bury Times, 5.12.13, Prestwich and Whitefield Guide, 21.11.13)
Save Elton Primary have set up a petition which can be signed here.
Save Elton Primary’s facebook page is here.
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Staff protest against ARK academy plan for Wembley School
As Privatisation Update was being prepared, staff at Copland Community School in
Wembley, north London were set to take a fourth day of strike action to oppose the
forced academisation of the school which had an Interim Executive Board imposed. The
action was planned for Tuesday 17 December and is supported by the NUT, ATL and
NASUWT. (NUT, NASUWT, ATL press release)
ACADEMIES
Academy sponsors benefit from new capital funding
The Government has announced details of the new academies being built as part of the
Targeted Basic Need Programme (TNBP). The total funding of around £820m is
intended to allow councils facing pressure on school places to bid for additional money
to build new schools or expand existing ones. The DfE says that the funding will result in
41 new academies. Many of the new schools will be run by existing sponsors such as
the Harris Federation, Oasis and Mossbourne Community Academy Trust.
However, a number of new sponsors have also been approved to run schools. These
include BT, which is sponsoring a new academy in Manchester, and Carillion, which will
sponsor two new primary schools in Tameside. Carillion Group is a global construction
and support services company with a large portfolio of contracts in the public sector, but
this is the first time that it is acting as an academy sponsor. The Group had annual
revenue in 2012 of some £4.4 billion, and operates across the UK, in the Middle East
and Canada.
As reported in November’s Privatisation Update, new academy trust Floreat Education
has also been selected by Wandsworth Council to run a primary academy. Floreat
Education was founded by James O’Shaughnessy, David Cameron's Director of Policy
from 2010-2011 and author of the 2010 Tory election manifesto. Floreat’s board
members also include Sam Freedman, former Senior Policy Adviser to Michael Gove,
currently Director of Research, Evaluation and Impact at Teach First.
Educate Together, an NGO which operates a network of 68 primary schools in Ireland,
will also run a new primary school in Bristol.
The DfE’s announcement and full list of sponsors can be found
www.gov.uk/government/news/bt-mossbourne-academy-and-the-harris-federationnamed-among-sponsors-of-new-academies
at:
Pre-warning letters sent to over 30 academies
More than 30 academies have been sent pre-warning letters by the DfE setting out
concerns about their level of performance. The letters warn that the schools must
improve or face action. In the first instance this would be an official warning, but the
ultimate sanction is to be taken over by a different sponsor.
Seven academies run by the Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) received pre-warning
letters in 2013. A further four are run by four different Church of England dioceses: the
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Diocese of Oxford, Rochester Diocesan Board of Education, the Diocese of Salisbury
and the Diocese of Bath and Wells Board of Finance.
In total the DfE has written to 34 sponsored academies run by 25 trusts since September
2011. Two academies were sent official warning notices in June 2012. Copies of the
pre-warning
letters
and
warning
notices
can
be
found
at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/improvement-notices-toacademies#group_2695
Priory federation file handed to CPS after police probe
Lincolnshire Police has handed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) following
a 20-month investigation into the financial scandal surrounding Lincoln’s Priory
Federation of Academies. The police investigation began nearly two years ago after a
referral was made from a DfE Internal Audit Investigation Team. Their report revealed
that the former chief executive Richard Gilliland had employed his wife, daughter and
son in well-paid jobs, which included some expenses for a fact-finding mission to Bali.
He also used a school credit card to buy sex games and Christmas dinners and school
funds to pay for his son’s training at an equestrian centre. Mr Gilliland quit his £206,000
a year post in March 2012. The CPS will now decide whether any charges will be
brought. (Lincolnshire Echo, 03.12.13)
How did 76 teachers leave Basildon Academies in just two years?
An academy in Basildon Essex has seen 76 teachers leave and paid out more than
£370,000 to former staff, according to the local Echo newspaper. A freedom of
information request made by the paper shows that £372,588 has been handed to former
staff at the Basildon Academies since it was created in September 2009. Since the start
of 2012, 46 teachers have left the Upper Academy while 30 teachers have left the Lower
Academy. This is thought to represent around 60 per cent of the total staff at the school.
The academies were formed following the merger of Chalvedon and Barstable
secondary schools in 2009.
Jerry Glazier, spokesman for the Essex branch of the NUT, said: “The figures do seem
high. Most schools have the highest staff turnover at the end of the school year, with
smaller levels at Christmas and Easter.”
The Basildon Upper Academy was one of only two academies in England to receive a
warning notice about its poor performance last year. (Essex Echo, 27.11.13)
Plans for state boarding school rejected
Plans to build a £22m state-funded boarding school in West Sussex for children from
inner-city London have been refused planning permission. The South Downs National
Park Authority said that the 375-place school was too big and that its impact on the
landscape would be "inappropriate". The Durand Academy, a primary school in
Stockwell, south London, owns the site and had planned to offer secondary places from
2014. The DfE has pledged £17.34m for the school with Durand providing a further £5m.
The South Downs National Park Authority says that it will “vigorously defend” their
position if the academy appeals.
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Roy Page, chairman of the State Boarding Schools’ Association, had previously publicly
criticised the Government’s decision to hand £17m to Durand. Mr Page, Head Master of
the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, attacked ministers for a “lack of vision” as
to how they can support existing state boarding schools while handing out millions to “an
organisation and headmaster with no experience in boarding”. (BBC News Sussex,
13.12.13, Independent, 24.11.13)
Academy advertises for unqualified maths teachers
South Leeds Academy, which Ofsted described as having "serious weaknesses", has
provoked outrage by advertising to recruit two unqualified maths teachers. The adverts
stipulated that the successful candidates should have at least four A*-C GCSEs
including maths, but a maths degree was only considered desirable rather than
essential. The advertised salary for the teacher was as low as £15,976, some £6,000
cheaper than staff who are qualified.
Kevin Courtney, Deputy General Secretary of the NUT, said: "Parents will be absolutely
shocked to think that any child of theirs would be taught with four GCSEs. The
Government talks continually about standards. Four GCSEs do not measure up to the
five A* to C they expect the majority of pupils to be achieving at present." He added: "It
gives a lie to Michael Gove's claim that his policy is to allow top professionals such as
engineers to become teachers and shows it is about teaching on the cheap."
The academy subsequently issued a statement saying there had been "an omission" in
the advert and that it “should have made clear that this post was for the appointment of
trainees to support the teaching of Mathematics with the potential opportunity to then
progress as a trainee teacher.” However, it is notable that the advert specified that the
positions were directly responsible to the leader of maths, rather than a maths teacher.
Earlier this year the South Leeds Academy was issued with a warning letter from
Schools’ Minister Lord Nash for its "unacceptably low standards of performance of
pupils". (Express, 22.11.13)
ARK approved to deliver own teacher training
Academy Chain ARK has been approved by the Government to deliver its own initial
teacher training programme. The ARK Teacher Training Programme will be delivered in
partnership with Canterbury Christ Church University but will be based in ARK schools.
ARK says that the programme will be aimed at “bright graduates with a UK degree or
equivalent” and that “every recruit must have at least a grade C in GCSE English and
maths”. (ARK press release)
Ofsted launch attack on Northumberland Council
Ofsted has launched a scathing attack on Northumberland’s education system accusing
council leaders of failing teachers and their students. An emergency inspection of 17
schools resulted in four being put into special measures, including one which had
previously been rated as 'Good'. Ofsted’s regional director Nick Hudson accused the
council of providing “inadequate support for schools” and branded the local authority’s
school improvement strategy as “inadequate”, saying it “lacked clarity”. Ofsted’s
intervention looks likely to result in more schools being forced into academy status and it
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is suspected the inspection service’s swoop is in part a response to the slow rate of
academy conversion in the County. (The Journal, 27.11.13)
FREE SCHOOLS
Government watchdog publishes damning report into free schools
The National Audit Office (NAO) has published a highly critical report examining the free
schools’ programme. The report, “Establishing Free Schools”, looked at three areas: the
process for setting up schools; the programme’s costs; and early indications of the
performance of free schools and oversight by the DfE. The overall purpose of the report
was to establish whether the Department for Education (DfE) had achieved value for
money in these areas. The NAO concluded that “to date, the primary factor in decisionmaking has been opening schools at pace, rather than maximising value for money” and
that the DfE “will need to exert more control to contain a rising cost trend.”
The NAO found that the DfE underestimated the capital costs of free schools. The
average cost of acquiring and converting free school premises (£6.6m) was more than
twice as high as the DfE’s original estimate from 2010 (£3 million). The DfE also spent
£8m to pay off the debts of private schools which became free schools.
The report confirmed that free schools are employing more unqualified teachers than
other state-funded schools: over 11 per cent of teachers in 64 open free schools that
responded to the School Workforce Census in November 2012 were unqualified,
compared with just under four per cent for all state-funded schools in England.
The report also underlined the fact that the free school policy is failing to address the
school places crisis. Despite the severe shortage in primary places, just 34 per cent of
projected places in the 174 open free schools are mainstream primary. Only 19 per cent
of secondary places are in areas of high or severe need. Furthermore, 42 free schools
have opened in districts with no forecast need. The estimated total capital cost of these
schools is at least £241 million out of a projected total of £950 million for mainstream
schools
Free schools were also found to be unrepresentative of their communities. According to
the report, free school pupils are less likely to be entitled to free school meals than
pupils in neighbouring schools: 16 per cent of free school pupils, compared to 25 per
cent in neighbouring schools and 17 per cent across England. They are also less likely
to have English as an additional language than pupils in neighbouring schools: 18 per
cent of free school pupils, compared to 36 per cent in neighbouring schools and 15 per
cent across England.
The NAO report will be considered by the Public Accounts Committee early next year.
The full report can be downloaded at:
www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/10314-001-Free-Schools-Book.pdf
Comment from NUT General Secretary Christine Blower can be found at:
www.teachers.org.uk/node/20081
6
Free school ordered to close
Schools Minister Lord Nash has written to governors at Discovery New School, a free
school in Crawley, West Sussex, informing them that the school’s funding will be
terminated and the school must close in April 2014. The decision means that the
school’s 65 children will need to find places in local schools. Discovery was one of the
first 24 free schools to open in 2011. It was placed in special measures following an
Ofsted visit in May 2013. The resulting report warned that children risked leaving the
school not being able to read and write. The latest visit by Ofsted, on 12 November,
found that the academy had not made enough progress to warrant it being removed
from special measures. Some 58 "milestones" were to be met..
Despite there being an 8.1 per cent surplus of school places within a three mile radius,
the school has received almost £3m of public finance in capital funding alone. In its
response to a Freedom of Information request by the NUT earlier this year, Discovery
revealed that of the school’s five teachers, just two had qualified teacher status (QTS).
This did not include the Head teacher who similarly did not have QTS.
NUT General Secretary Chirstine Blower said: “The NUT takes no pleasure in the news
that the Discovery Free School is to close. When a school closes it is the children who
suffer and their education that is affected. There will be many worried parents in the runup to Christmas concerned about what this means for their child’s education.” (BBC
News, 13.12.13)
Al-Madinah free school still in chaos
The Muslim Al-Madinah Free School in Derby has been threatened with closure if it does
not improve following a damning monitoring report by Ofsted which found that there
were "no signs of improvement" at the school and that it "remains in chaos". The report
said that "the school is not improving because relationships between school leaders, at
all levels, are destructive and deteriorating". According to Ofsted, 47 pupils and five
members of staff have resigned since the initial inspection in October.
It was thought that the Greenwood Dale Foundation Trust, which runs two academies in
Nottingham, was likely to take over the school following reports that its leadership was in
talks with the DfE. However, having completed a 10-day assessment of the school, chief
executive of Greenwood Dale, Barry Day, has poured cold water on the idea saying that
Al-Madinah: “is unlikely to become part of our trust because, as I have told the DfE
already, specialist finance and health and safety experts need to sort issues out
separately, while we concentrate on helping out with the academic side.” (Derby
Telegraph, 16.12.13, Northamptonshire Telegraph, 12.12.13)
Ofsted criticised over Kings Science Academy
David Ward, the Liberal Democrat MP for Bradford East, has criticised Ofsted for failing
to mention a DfE investigation into the finances at the Kings Science Academy free
school, when it visited the school in February 2013. The investigation, which was carried
out in early 2013, found that the school had submitted fabricated invoices to claim just
over £10,000 in public money. In total, £86,335 had been mis-spent at the school.
7
Mr Ward said: “I’m shocked and saddened that Ofsted have admitted that they were
aware of the financial irregularities at the Kings Science Academy but did nothing to
raise financial competence as a concern in their report of the school. Ofsted have a duty
to independently report on the conditions of a school so that parents can have an
informed choice about which schools to send their children to.”
An Ofsted spokesman said: “We judged that Kings Science Academy required
improvement when we inspected it earlier this year and found the governance to be
weak. At that point, we were aware that the Education Funding Agency was looking into
allegations of financial irregularities. The school has received one monitoring visit and a
further monitoring visit is already planned as part of Ofsted’s commitment to working with
schools that are not yet good.”
The alleged fraud at the free school was only revealed in October 2013, when the DfE
audit was leaked, forcing ministers to publish it. At the time the DfE claimed that police
had decided to take no further action. It later emerged that the DfE had reported the
matter with a phone call to Action Fraud - the UK's national fraud and internet crime
reporting centre - on 25 April. The Government said that this did not result in police
action for more than five months because the call was incorrectly recorded by Action
Fraud as being for information only. In November West Yorkshire Police launched a
fraud inquiry, which is ongoing. (Yorkshire Post, 30.11.13, 02.12.13)
More than half of new free schools opened with spare places
More than half of the free schools that opened in 2012 had spare places according to
new DfE figures analysed by the Guardian. Nearly six out of ten opened at only 90 per
cent of their stated first-year capacity or less while 10 schools – nearly one in four of the
44 mainstream free schools for which full data is available – opened at 60 per cent or
less of the student numbers predicted.
The analysis, which combines the latest school census data with official DfE predictions
of free school pupil numbers and school funding information, also reveals that the DfE is
paying substantial sums to undersubscribed free schools so that they can build up their
capacity. Sandymoor free school, an 11-18 comprehensive in Runcorn, Merseyside, had
only 40 pupils in January 2013, compared with a prediction in its impact assessment of
80. The school is receiving £1m from the DfE to cover the extra cost of building up pupil
numbers over time. Rimon Jewish primary school, in Barnet, north London, opened with
just 15 pupils in 2012, compared to an official prediction of 28, and is receiving £570,000
to build up numbers.
Read more at: www.theguardian.com/education/2013/dec/13/half-free-schools-spareplaces-figures
Principal at flagship free school leaves
Sherry Zand the head of IES Breckland - the first English free school to be run on a forprofit basis - has resigned just weeks after she sacked six teachers. The decision was
apparently made during a meeting between the head teacher and the board and CEO of
Swedish Education company Internationella Engelska Skolan (IES) which runs the
school. Zand will be replaced by interim principal, Peter John Fyles, a current employee
8
of IES. A statement from IES said: “Ms Zand has chosen to move back to Surrey to be
closer to her parents and to support her daughter Farrah in returning to her old school.”
The announcement came just a few weeks after six members of staff were released
from the school in late October 2013. The staff included the head of maths and a
member of the senior leadership team, who was also head of the English department.
Three of the staff were on temporary contracts and three were newly-hired teachers in
probationary periods. Zand had insisted at the time that the decisions were taken “in the
best interests” of the school.
IES was awarded a £21m contract to run Breckland for ten years after it won a bidding
process led by the charitable trust behind the school, the Sabres Educational Trust, in
2012. The firm is entitled to make a profit under the contract. According to IES Ms Zand
is to remain working within the company in an unspecified role. (EDP 24, 18.11.13)
Campaign to stop Burnley's first free school launched
A campaign against Burnley's first proposed free school has been launched by the
council and NUT members. The Burnley High School is being proposed by the Christian
charity Chapel Street Schools Trust. The school will have a Christian ethos and could
open with as few as 60 pupils next September, at a projected cost of £5m.
NUT executive officer Simon Jones said: “Burnley must learn from the mistakes that
Blackburn with Darwen has made on this issue where the introduction of five free
schools has had a devastating effect on primary and secondary school provision.”
Council leader Julie Cooper said: “Improvements have been hard won. With stringent
cuts being imposed from central government, it would be nonsense to divert £5m away
from existing school budgets, placing them in jeopardy, to fund a school which the vast
majority of educationalists and faith groups in the town oppose.” (Lancashire Telegraph,
11.12.13)
Oldham Council opposes Phoenix Free School
Oldham Council is opposing plans for a military free school in the city, saying that the
area already has over 1,000 surplus secondary places. The Phoenix Free School, which
has been approved to open from September 2014, is being set up by a former army
instructor Professor Tom Burkard. While Phoenix say they will only use qualified
teachers, they are planning to create a new category of “instructors” within the school
and will appoint former Non Commissioned Officers to these roles.
An Oldham Council spokesperson said there were 1,108 surplus places in Oldham's
secondary system, the majority of which were at the sponsored academy schools Oasis
Academy Oldham, Oldham Academy North and Waterhead Academy. Councillor
Amanda Chadderton said the council was "concerned the addition of the Phoenix School
to this delicate mix would produce major problems which far outweigh its unproven
potential benefit." (BBC News Manchester, 21.11.13)
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School leaders unhappy with free schools
Nearly three quarters of school leaders (72 per cent) are dissatisfied with the
Government’s free schools’ programme, a survey of school leaders by law firm Browne
Jacobson, has shown. Nearly half of the respondents said that they were “very
dissatisfied.”
Read
the
full
survey
at:
http://www.educationadvisors.com/resource/school-leaders-survey-2013/
OTHER NEWS
Expansion of UTC programme threatened by low take up
The Department for Education (DfE) is to delay the creation of dozens of University
Technical Colleges because of fears over a lack of demand and poor ratings from Ofsted
inspectors, according to the The Telegraph. The 14-19 institutions offer a technical
education with specialisms in disciplines such as engineering, manufacturing,
construction, business and computer science. However, data published following a
Parliamentary question appears to show that they are not proving popular with some the
schools running at just a third of their capacity.
According to the report the DfE is now closely scrutinising proposals for a further 42
schools. It is thought that some projects may be blocked altogether while others will be
required to provide more information to prove that demand exists.
A senior Whitehall source said: "The idea of some academies focused on vocational
training is a good one but there are problems with UTCs that need ironing out.
Supporters of UTCs want a pace of growth that would mean lots of failure and wasted
taxpayer money. The DfE is slowing the programme down so they can get it right."
Read more at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10474257/Ministers-could-blockexpansion-of-technical-schools.html
Gove appoints new academy and free school regulators
The DfE is appointing new regional regulators to oversee free schools and academies in
eight English regions. Successful appointees will be paid between £100,000 and
£140,000 and will have powers to seize control of failing academies and free schools.
While the DfE says that the positions “represent an important shifting of operational
decision-making from Whitehall to our best leaders”, officials have said that this should
not be seen as the creation of a so-called “middle tier”.
The DfE’s description of the role states that the Commissioners “will take important
operational decisions on behalf of the Secretary of State about academies, free schools
and sponsors in their region.” The positions will be supported by “head teacher boards”
made up of “five to six local education leaders, including head teachers of outstanding
academies in the region” who are “elected by their peers”. Members of the board will
dedicate around a day a week to the role.
The responsibilities of the Commissioner include: monitoring performance and
intervening in underperforming academies, including directing them to commission
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school improvement services and using formal interventions; taking decisions on the
creation of new academies in their area by approving applications from maintained
schools wishing to convert to academy status; and supporting the national schools
commissioner to authorise applications to become an academy sponsor, monitoring the
performance of existing sponsors and “de-authorising them where necessary”.
While it appears that local authority schools will remain outside the new system, the
Commissioners will have a role in “recommending suitable sponsors to ministers for
maintained schools that have been selected to become academies.”
Each commissioner will have office accommodation in their region as well as a “small
full-time secretariat”. As many as 200 jobs may need to be cut within the DfE to fund the
spending on the new regional posts according to leaked memos seen by the Guardian in
November. The cost is likely to rise because of Education Secretary Michael Gove's
insistence that the new boards be accommodated within a school in each region, rather
than in cheaper, existing government offices. (Guardian, 20.11.13, TES News Blog,
06.12.13)
Descriptions
of
the
new
roles
can
be
http://www.regionalschoolscommissioner.com/sections/about_the_org
found
at:
INTERNATIONAL
Sweden rethinks free schools
Swedish politicians are back-tracking on the country’s free school policy ahead of
elections next year, according to the news service Reuters. The Swedish Green party,
long-time supporters of privately run schools, issued a public apology in a Swedish daily
last month headlined "Forgive us, our policy led our schools astray".
New legislation proposed by the centre-right Government will force free school operators
to run schools for a minimum period, probably ten years. The legislation, backed by the
opposition Social Democrats, will not apply to existing owners but in time is likely to put
off private equity players, who tend to have five to seven year investment horizons.
The involvement of private equity firms in the education system is a growing concern for
Swedish politicians. Earlier this year one of Sweden’s biggest free school firms, JB
Education, owned by Danish private equity firm Axcel, went bust leaving 11,000
students and 1,000 staff in the lurch. About a quarter of Swedish secondary school
students now attend publicly-funded but privately run schools, almost twice the global
average, and nearly half of those study at schools fully or partly owned by private equity
firms.
The shift is also partly prompted by Sweden’s recent performance in the Organisation of
Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) benchmark Programme for
International Student Assessment (PISA). Sweden’s place in the rankings has dropped
in recent years, and the country now sits below Russia in maths performance.
Read more at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/10/us-sweden-schools-insightidUSBRE9B905620131210
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