Academies Bill [Lords]

Debate between Shabana Mahmood and Elizabeth Truss

Monday 19th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

I care about pupils in the schools and whether they achieve what they need to and should achieve. They have been let down by 13 years of failed policies. I shall outline exactly why they have been let down, why teachers are not empowered to teach in the way they see fit and why the teaching profession has been denigrated.

[Shabana Mahmood]

Does the hon. Lady accept that there is a difference between having a policy, wanting to get it on the statute book as quickly as possible and feeling passionately about it—I have no doubt that she feels passionately about it—and bypassing proper scrutiny in a Bill Committee and giving people outside and in the House time to scrutinise it fully and ascertain its impact?

[Elizabeth Truss]

I thought that what is happening today and later this week was scrutiny—though not very much, looking at the Opposition Benches.

Whatever some Labour Members have said, the Bill is a continuation of one of the previous Labour Government’s successful policies, which allowed a few schools to become academies. We have therefore seen such a policy work. However, the vast majority of the money that the previous Government spent was not spent wisely. The money for academies was the small proportion that was spent wisely, but we experienced a huge increase in centralisation and bureaucracy under the previous Government. A vast array of quangos was set up—for example, the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency; Ofqual; the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency; Partnerships for Schools, and Every Child Matters. A whole series of strategies and interventions took place.

[Shabana Mahmood]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Elizabeth Truss]

No, I want to continue with my point, and I have already given way to the hon. Lady.

Every strategy dictated to teachers what they should do. That took away decision making from the teaching profession and teachers’ ability to lead the class in the way they saw fit. The curriculum became increasingly prescriptive, with bodies such as the QCDA and Ofqual devising examinations that were more modulised and standardised. Instead of encouraging every child to learn and develop a love of a subject and educating each child’s mind, teachers were encouraged to teach to the test. Labour Members proclaim results as improvements, but much of that was to do with the fact that, as the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Tristram Hunt) said, teachers were rewarded on results.