Fears over free schools

Published: 16 September, 2010

• CONCERNING David Wolfe’s Legal Eye piece (‘Schools free to break the rules’ September 9), I’d like to express my concerns about the new free schools in Camden. 

They may at first seem a good idea, smaller, “human scale” institutions that will allow communities to develop schools that suit them best, to experiment and innovate. 

But we need real community schools, not the ones proposed.

Being outside local control there are risks from free schools to other local schools. Selection procedures may allow these schools to choose the highest-achieving pupils, perpetuating class and income divides that fracture our society. We are also likely to see more religious schools, further risking worsening the divisions our society.

As David Wolfe points out there is also the problem of local accountability, with no rules as to who must be on these governing bodies: parents may not be included. 

Experience in the US and Sweden has shown that private companies in the business of running schools are more likely to benefit from this initiative than are educational standards. 

Let’s see real community schools that attract local children, with all schools having greater control over their curriculum – and Camden as the education authority working with headteachers to innovate and experiment.
Cllr Maya de Souza 
Green Party, Highgate ward