NASUWT comments on the Education Select Committee's report into multi academy trusts
Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union in the UK, has commented on the Education Select Committee's report into multi academy trusts.
“The NASUWT has made the point consistently that there is no evidence that structural change raises standards or that, across the board, multi academy trusts are any more successful at supporting schools than local authorities.
“The haste and aggression with which the Government has pursued its academisation policy has led to a worrying lack of democratic oversight of multi academy trusts. There have been serious concerns about financial practices, admissions arrangements and working practices in several trusts and greater regulation and transparency is needed to ensure public confidence that all MATs operate effectively and in the public interest.
“The Committee suggests that the Government needs to work with local authorities with strong track records in education to create MATs, but ministers have spent the last six and half years systematically stripping councils of many of their resources to improve education.
“At a time of continued austerity, enormous sums of public money have been diverted to support the Government’s academisation programme with little or no evidence that children’s education has benefited.”
