Making all schools into academies in the UK is wrong
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By Kevin Courtney, General Secretary of the National Education Union, UK 6 April 2022
England’s school system has undergone a radical transformation since 2010 with thousands of schools transferred into the control of private organisations called academy trusts. These are hybrid organisations – not-for-profit private trusts subject to company law which receive state funding but operate via a contract with central government, rather than a relationship with the local authority. Many different types of organisations have set up academy trusts, from large commercial companies, to churches, universities and wealthy private individuals.
Currently, around 80% of English secondary schools and nearly 40% of primary schools are academies. Although some trusts run ‘stand-alone’ academies, most academies are now in ‘chains’, known as Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs). The trend is towards consolidation into larger MATs, where a single trust board can be responsible for many schools – the largest MAT...
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