Why we should take academy money now (From Durham Times)

Why we should take academy money now

1:25pm Friday 19th June 2009

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STRIKING teachers seem to have missed the bigger picture in their dispute with Durham County Council over the shake-up of secondary education in the northern part of the county.

Yes, academies have had mixed results, but that is not the reason to reject them outright.

True, some of the pioneer academies had truly disastrous beginnings, but that is not the case with the more recently- established “super schools”. Their results have been far better, in some cases excellent. Lessons have clearly been learned.

Whether members of the National Association of Schoolmasters’ Union of Women Teachers like it or not, there are sums of money tied to the creation of the acadamies.

Durham County Council will simply miss out on this if it does not pursue the academy route. Given the funding difficulties local government is likely to face in the coming years, it would be foolhardy for the authority to turn its back on a structure that has the favour of central government.

Clearly, teachers fear the upheaval of a reorganisation that will in many cases interfere with individual career plans and aspirations. For every teacher who may find merited advancement through the process, there will be others who suffer effective demotion or redundancy.

But those concerns, ultimately, are secondary to the business of educating children in the most effective way. That’s why the academies will prevail.

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