The Accord Coalition has urged the Government to revise the inspection framework for state funded schools following the announcement today by the Prime Minister that the Government is to stick to its pledge to open 500 free schools over the next five years. The announcement follows comment from David Cameron last month that he wants all state funded schools in England to eventually to become academies.
Chair of the Accord Coalition for Inclusive Education, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, said ‘There remains a serious risk from schools following narrow and exclusive agendas in the school system to which the Government needs to be more alert. This has been demonstrated recently by the closure so far of three Free Schools, all of which were faith schools, and the Birmingham schools scandal last year, all of which were community schools.
‘As schools are given greater autonomy, so there should be more checks to ensure new freedoms are not misused. As a matter of urgency, all schools should again be inspected by Ofsted upon their contribution towards community cohesion. Meanwhile, faith schools should no longer be able to choose the body that inspects their provision of Religious Education, but face the same inspection system as all other state funded schools.’
In 2007 Ofsted was required to inspect state funded schools on their contribution towards promoting community cohesion, but the duty was removed by the 2012 Education Act, a move that Accord actively opposed.
Last month the leading academic, Professor Linda Woodhead, and former Education Secretary, Charles Clarke, published their report ‘A New Settlement: Religion and Belief in Schools‘. Its recommendations included that Ofsted should re-establish ‘a strong inspection system’ to ensure all state funded schools are again inspected on their promotion of community cohesion.
