Last week, Chancellor George Osborne outlined plans in his Budget for all schools to become academies by 2022 at the very latest.
?But now one petition set up on the parliament website has called for a public inquiry and a referendum to be held into the plans, while another has called for the plans to be scrapped altogether. ?
As of 15:30 on 21 March they had received 113,651 signatures and 101,956 signatures.?
If a petition gets more than 100,000 signatures then the House of Commons petition committee is legally bound to consider it for debate in Parliament.
??The petition calling for a referendum was created by Bridget Chapman, chair of the Anti-Academies Alliance.
It says: “We demand the government holds a full public inquiry - that takes into account educational research and the views of teachers, parents and students - followed by a referendum in order to show that they have a mandate.”??
Meanwhile the other petition states: “Government is choosing to ignore the evidence from the Her Majesty Chief Inspector of schools, the education select committee and the Sutton Trust’s own Chain Effects report, which clearly demonstrates that academy status not only does not result in higher attainment but that many chains are badly failing their pupils, particularly their disadvantaged pupils.”??
A release put out by the Anti-Academies Alliance after Chapman’s petition hit 100,000 signatures said the speed with which the public have reacted shows they understand “just how damaging and dangerous” the latest education white paper is.?
?“We fully expect the government to hold the inquiry that the public have demanded,” the statement said.
“If they do not we will work with parents, students, unions and academics to build our own.
“If academies are the educational panacea that the government claim they can have nothing to fear from a full and forensic examination of the evidence.”
The National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) have also organised a rally on 23 March to voice their concerns about the plans, with Labour’s shadow education secretary Lucy Powell due to speak.
Kevin Courtney, deputy general secretary of the NUT, said: “Incredibly, this is all being done despite the fact that there is no evidence that academies improve the educational results of children.
??“We must all speak out to keep education in the hands of our communities and stop this reckless and destructive policy.”
Mary Bousted, general secretary of the ATL, added: “There is no evidence academies improve children’s education.
??“All the evidence shows the quality of multi-academy trusts (MATs) is highly variable.
??“Even Sir Michael Wilshaw has said that the worst MATs are performing as badly as the worst local authorities.”
