Parents will keep the right to have places on school governing boards, the education secretary, Justine Greening, has announced.
Greening told the Commons education committee on Wednesday that she was dropping plans by her predecessor Nicky Morgan to eliminate reserved places for parent governors in England’s state schools.
Morgan’s original proposal to abolish places for parent governors met with strong opposition, and was one of the most unpopular elements of the white paper she put forward earlier this year.
Asked by Labour MP Stephen Timms if she would consider overturning Morgan’s policy, Greening said: “I do not think we should proceed with that.”
She added: “I think parent governors play a vital role. I was a governor, I’m not any more, but I was a governor for 15 years, maybe more, and parents played a vital role on the governing body I was a part of.
“When schools turn around it’s when parents become more engaged and more invested in the school’s success, and that helps build the school from the outside as well as the hard work teachers are doing on the inside.
“It doesn’t happen overnight, it takes years to do but parents are part of how success gets delivered.”
John Pugh, the Liberal Democrat spokesman on education, welcomed Greening’s abandonment of the policy.
“It should have never reached this stage but I am glad, finally, that the government have seen sense,” Pugh said.
Greening also indicated that she would row back on another of Morgan’s proposals, which aimed to see all schools in England converted to academy status.
Although Morgan later dropped a deadline for all schools to become academies by 2020, the policy remained an aim for the Department for Education.
But Greening, in her first appearance before the education select committee, said the department’s efforts would instead be focused on improving schools.
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“Yes I do want to see all schools, over time, become academies but I think our focus has got to be on schools that are struggling and not doing well enough for children at the moment,” she said.
“Our focus will be on those schools where we feel that standards need to be raised.”
The education secretary also faced questions on the government’s controversial proposal to allow new selective grammar schools to open.
Asked to show evidence that grammar schools improved social mobility for those who failed entrance exams, Greening told Michelle Donelan, the Conservative MP for Chippenham: “You talk about evidence, Michelle – what about getting some evidence and opening one in deprived areas?”
Acknowledging that it was an “emotive” debate, Greening told the MPs: “I don’t think it’s good enough to tell parents that they are wrong when they want a grammar school place and they can’t get one.”
Asked about the advantage gained by children whose parents could afford to pay for private tuition before entrance exams, the education secretary said: “There are a lot of children getting into grammars who didn’t have tutoring.”
The education secretary assured the committee that her plans, in a consultation document published on Monday, were intended to boost social mobility and would be based on evidence. “Our proposals are absolutely not driven by ideology and dogma,” she said.
In Brighton, the TUC Congress passed a motion opposing new grammar schools, arguing there was “no evidence that grammar schools provide a route for poor, academically able children to achieve better life chances”.
Greening also hinted there would soon be a new role for local authorities, after years of seeing their powers over schools curtailed.
“That is one of the things that I do need to do over the coming months and will seek to do. I think local authorities can play a role. I think it’s about making sure they have the right role … in the school ecosystem,” she said.
[Source:- The Guardian]
