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Party political proposals for governing and accountability post 2015.
As the 2015 elections loom large, education is an important element of party political manifestos. Pre-election hype has already begun with promises of a radical overhaul of Ofsted and a middle tier of accountability to provide more effective school governance than exists at present. But how achievable are these aims - particularly in view of limited resources and the enormous changes that the Coalition Government imposed on the structure of England's education system? In this article Jacqueline Baxter takes a look at two key areas - school governing and school accountability and discusses whether these proposals are realistic based on the state of school governing and educational accountability today.
The election countdown has begun and proposals for education are high on the list of the main political parties. This is perhaps unsurprising considering the sweeping changes to the structure and character of English education effected by the Conservative /Lib Democrat Coalition since 2010. The changes, ideologically underpinned by a neoliberal belief in the primacy of parental choice, have created an education system which whilst offering schools so called freedoms (curricular and financial), is also subject to one of the most stringent regulatory systems in Europe.
Ofsted (The Office for Standards in Education, Childrens’ services and Skills), the quasi autonomous government body tasked with regulating this system, has not only struggled to keep pace with these changes but has also been tasked with combining these accountabilities together with a coherent plan to tackle the burgeoning issues related to the purported growth of extremism in schools. In addition to this the impetus for educational improvement has placed education under increasing pressures from government to ensure that educational standards are raised in line with international performance indicators such as the OECD programme PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment).
