UK - LITIGATION AGAINST SCHOOLS A REAL THREAT?

News 18 11 2009: Litigation against Schools a real threat?. Unveiled in the Queen's Speech was a New Education Bill to which a another New Ombudsman’s position be created as a set of pupil and parent guarantees be launched. But as the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) General Secretary John Dunford said: "It is easy for the Government to 'guarantee' specific rights for pupils and parents when Ministers aren't the ones who have to deliver. It is school leaders and staff whose jobs will be on the line if they don't meet the 'guarantees'. The ASCL said the proposals are "prescriptive" and open the door to litigation. Mr Balls has previously admitted that if these avenues fail to provide a resolution then a parent could take a school to court in the form of a judicial review. But he insisted this would be a "last resort."

 

Opinion: Is it not too improbable, given the events, that the Government is steering all Education into the Private Sector such that it can then instigate inquiries as to others and not itself on Costs and Standards?. Interestingly in the April of 2008 the Government instigated a report to “find out” that it was spending some £700 million per year in fees to School Exam Boards. In the July of 2009 it was reported that the Learning and Skills Council [LSC] over approved some £2.7 billion in spending which was followed 2 months later by an announcement of a £2 billion cut in School Budgets with proposals that schools be merged into "Federations" run by a single team!. This is against a backdrop of some 130 independent Labour Academy Schools whose rules differ from Ordinary State Schools and whose cases be handled directly by Mr Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary. Following the deployment of “league tables” the New Education Bill now allows under performing Schools to be either partnerships or handed over to outside education providers.

 

I must sympathise with School teachers since I was embroiled in the Incorporation of Colleges in 1998 when Colleges became responsible for their own finances. As a Lecturer I recall that long before that event monthly Faculty Meetings were about “who is to go” in the need to cut the salary bill, thus creating a thickening black cloud of unemployment over everyone’s heads and to offset the “litigation risk” against the College, should anyone suffer a mental breakdown, the Management handed out printed business cards containing the contact numbers of psychological Councillors!. As to “Silver Book” conditions, which served to protect the welfare of Teaching staff, staff not signing a New Contract “ripping up existing terms” were denied any salary increases. Additionally teaching staff then had to justify their capability by acquiring a D32, D33 qualification while lesson durations reduced in allowing more classes to constitute a days teaching. No expense was spared as Incorporation loomed closer in purchasing additional IT equipment after the Management instructed staff that their teaching notes be translated into booklet form for subsequent storage in the Faculty Office. It is usual come a summer recess that the Principle addresses all staff to thank them for their hard work during the year but in 1998 his absence was noticeable!. After the summer recess the majority of the staff returned on a agency contract bases earning considerably less and paid only for actual teaching hours as per completed time sheets.

 

A Nation expects that “existing” STANDARDS be raised and not be replaced with ever newer ones changing the goal posts. Ordinary people now have a high price to pay through debt on the lack of Standards yet others live in the belief that by throwing money at problems they can be bought!.   

 

OLD NEWS:

12 01 2007 School leaving age goes up to 18 by 2013. The school leaving age is to be raised for the first time in nearly half a century, The Times has learnt. Ten-year-olds who enter secondary school next year will be the first to have to stay in mandatory education until they are 18. It will be the first rise in the school leaving age since 1972, when it was raised to 16. The change, which will affect around 330,000 teenagers, will help to tackle rising youth unemployment, with unskilled school leavers finding it increasingly difficult to get a job. The move will require legislation. The Government is considering enforcing the change by withdrawing driving licences from teenagers who do not comply. Mr Johnson, (Education secretary) who left school at 15 without qualifications, told The Times: “It should be as unacceptable to see a 16-year- old working, with no training, no education, as it is now to see a 14-year-old. They could also stay on at school, studying either A levels, new-style diplomas or the International Baccalaureat

 

04 04 2008 £<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />700m spent on exams every year. A Government-commissioned report [ by Europe Economics ] has found that Exam Boards charge more than £400 million per year in fees, while at least £300 million is spent on invigilators and other staff to manage the tests in schools. Head teachers warned that the "bloated" system needed to be severely cut back as schools now spend far more on exams than books. The study warned that the exam system was likely to have become inefficient in recent years and unless action is taken, the burden on taxpayers will increase.". John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said headteachers now spend more on exams than books or computer equipment. "This is a desperately bad use of public money. It has become the second biggest item after staffing in most secondary school and college budgets," he said.

 

25 04 2008 Thousands of schools hit by strike. Up to 7,000 joined a march in central London, carrying banners describing the Prime Minister as a "clown" and warning that the Government was trying to "wreck" the education system. Speaking during his school visit Mr Balls said: "There isn't a justification for the strike. Teachers swapped the classroom for the streets as they took part in scores of rallies and marches to protest about below inflation wage rises and warn of a "serious downturn" in recruitment.

 

13 05 2008 Call to end national school tests.National school tests should be scrapped as the pressure to meet Government targets has denied children their right to a rounded education, say MPs. MPs demanded an inquiry into "grade inflation" amid concerns that test results may exaggerate the true standards of education that children reach.

 

17 05 2008 further education - creeping privatisation. Further education is under threat from 'creeping privatisation', according to a union leader. General secretary of the University and College Union (UCU) Sally Hunt will make the claim in her keynote speech at a conference in central London. According to figures supplied by the University and College Union (UCU) , private investment now represents some 30% of all spending in further education in the UK - double the EU average.

 

21 05 2008 FEARS OVER new breed of school diplomas. Schools Secretary Ed Balls has said he believes diplomas could replace A-levels and GCSEs as "the qualification of choice" for 14 to 19-year-olds in England. Supporters of the scheme said they believed the number would be significantly lower than the 40,000 teenagers the Government had originally hoped for. John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the numbers of pupils would be "of secondary importance" if the courses were high quality. Teenagers will have to travel for different classes between colleges, schools and employers who will give them work experience as part of the diplomas. A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said the Government wanted to keep numbers limited to maximise the chances that diplomas would be successful.

 

26 05 2008 Schools slam under-fives curriculum. The Independent Schools Council has written to children's minister Beverley Hughes complaining of greater government interference than that for any other age group, according to The Times newspaper, which said it had seen a leaked copy of the letter. It says the Early Years Foundation Stage framework is a "clumsy intrusion into the early years' curriculum of independent schools" and is both "unjustified and unnecessary". The framework becomes law in the autumn and will affect all 25,000 nurseries and childcare settings in England, whether they are run by the state, charities or private companies. A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "It is nonsense to say that the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) breaches human rights.

 

00 08 2008 Capita moves to take over £156m Sats contract after US firm is fired ETS Europe ordered to pay back some £24.1million of almost £40million it received to run the testing process and stripped of the £156million(?) five-year deal after its handling of the test results collapsed. Mr Balls ruled out suspending Sats for 2009. TWO YEARS AGO 5 Companies shortlisted. The Head of the OCR exam board, said it did not bid because the tests were used to measure schools against one another, rather than qualifying a child at a certain level and diagnosing skills. A second exam board, AQA, also said it had not bid because of concerns about the purpose of the tests. From early on there were problems with the delivery and collection of scripts from schools, the electronic registration and moderating system crashed and markers and schools could not log on. The helpline was constantly engaged. Markers resigned. At one point the National Assessment Agency went in and found 10,000 unopened emails from increasingly desperate schools. The schools minister, Jim Knight, said one factor was the "different style of management" compared to the previous British-based companies.

 

05 08 2008 Education - Test results - beggars belief. Head teachers have said the Government's decision to publish the results "beggars belief" following the marking shambles. Schools secretary Ed Balls said last week that he had been advised by statisticians that there is enough data available to go ahead with publication. England's exams regulator Ofqual had advised that, as of the end of July, there are no widespread concerns about the quality of marks that could justify withholding the results. Latest figures from contractor ETS Europe, hired to deliver the results, show that 99% at Key Stage 2 are now available to schools. A spokesman for teaching union NAHT said they had received more than 300 examples of maladministration and inaccuracies.

 

24 10 2008 Bonuses for Sats fiasco officials. The Government’s National Assessment Agency (NAA) are to be awarded thousands of pounds in bonuses next month. The NAA is a division of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) which was responsible for delivering this summer's tests and appointed private contractor ETS Europe to carry out the process. The resulting shambles saw more than a million pupils' results delayed and thousands of scripts go missing or get sent to the wrong place. A QCA spokesman said: "The current pay settlement is for the financial year from April 2007-March 2008 and therefore relates to the 2007 test cycle which was delivered successfully.

 

18 11 2008 New plans to boost child protection. The Government is to announce measures aimed at enhancing the protection of at-risk youngsters. Children's Secretary Ed Balls will put forward legislation aimed at creating greater accountability for a child's wellbeing, with local services forced to chart their progress in intervening at an early stage. It comes amid concern over the plight of vulnerable children following the case of Baby P, who died after suffering more than 50 injuries at the hands of his abusive mother, her boyfriend and a lodger. The Government will also publish new reforms aimed at improving child and adolescent mental health care.

 

19 11 2008 Capita takes charge of 16-18 student payments. Capita has been appointed by the LSC and will take on all its learner support services, including the EMA and the Adult Learning Grant (ALG). Nick Gibb, said: "Yet again, Ed Balls' department has presided over the shambolic administration of services that directly impact on children's education. He demanded to know how much taxpayers' money Liberata had been paid and whether it would be forced to pay it all back. The EMA contract is the second in education sector the government has been forced to terminate this year.

 

14 12 2008 Exams chief quits over Sats fiasco.Dr Ken Boston, the Head of the Government's Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) testing agency, resigns just days before an inquiry into this summer's Sats fiasco is due to be published. He said that he was "taking responsibility" over the marking delays, which affected a million schoolchildren. In my 40-year career as a public servant in England and Australia I have always believed in public bodies and public officials taking responsibility when things go wrong. The QCA and its testing arm, the National Assessment Agency (NAA) appointed private contractor ETS Europe to carry out the process

 

13 02 2009 GPs - contraceptive implants. GPs will be paid bonuses for persuading teenagers to have long-lasting contraceptive implants and jabs without their parents' knowledge, it has emerged. Ministers say the move is necessary as many teenagers fail to take the Pill regularly and do not use condoms properly. But campaigners condemned the payments as bribes. The plans were revealed by Health Secretary Alan Johnson and Schools Secretary Ed Balls yesterday as part of a strategy on the young. GPs receive about a third of their salary, which is performance-related, through the Quality and Outcomes Framework.

 

18 03 2009 150,000 Sats re-marked after fiasco. Statistics published by the QCA show that 4,628 primary schools asked for 25,142 English papers to be remarked - this almost six times as many schools as in 2007, when 784 schools requested 1,456 reviews and 261 primary schools requested a remark for a whole group of pupils. One teacher's leader said the figures were "appalling" and said they showed that schools had no confidence in the quality of marking last year. At secondary school level some 1,001 schools returned English tests for some 11,217 pupils. Mick Brookes, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), said: "I think the figures are appalling. Last summer the Sats results of more than a million schoolchildren were delayed after a series of administrative failures by the QCA's contractor ETS Europe.

 

10 04 2009 Teacher union's Sats boycott threat. "The announcement earlier this week that it's not set in stone is a way forward towards getting rid of league tables and getting rid of testing." Schools Secretary Ed Balls said on Monday that he had "no intention" of abolishing testing for 11-year-olds, but added it was likely the current system would be reformed before next year.

 

15 04 2009 Parents to face penalties if children misbehave at school. A three-year Government study into classroom behaviour will call for greater use of parenting contracts for mothers and fathers failing to keep children in line and £50 penalties for those condoning truancy. The conclusions are presented in a major review by Sir Alan Steer, the Government's leading behaviour expert. Last year, it emerged some of the Government's new academies were operating reward schemes in which pupils can win thousands of pounds worth of prizes including plasma screen TVs, iPods and Nintendo Wii games consoles. They can apply to courts for a "parenting contract" requiring mothers and fathers of wayward pupils to take parenting classes - with fines of up to £1,000 if they fail to attend.

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