Mark Lehain is Head of Education at the Centre for Policy Studies, former education Special Adviser and the founding principal of the Bedford Free School.
Here we go again. It’s term time but millions of kids across the country are being denied school as the National Education Union (NEU) has called its members out on strike once more. Forget the fact that children have already had three years of their education disrupted by Covid. Ignore the minor issue of school
If you believe that the whole system is racist, it’s only natural that you’ll interpret every bit of evidence as proof that racism exists everywhere. It certainly seems that way when it comes to Covid. When it emerged earlier this year that a substantial number of the doctors and nurses who died from coronavirus in
While the government’s strategy on Covid might be as clear as mud, on the problem of a partisan school sector, it has recently struck a remarkably forthright position. Yesterday, the Minster for Equalities Kemi Badenoch said: ‘We do not want teachers to teach their white pupils about white privilege and inherited racial guilt. Let me
At first, I assumed it would be a one off. I’m chatting about nothing in particular with a friend at a teacher conference when, having checked that no one else was in earshot, she blurted out: ‘Look, don’t tell anyone, but I don’t think I can vote Labour any more. Their education stuff… it’s just
For too many people, schools are the solution to every one of society’s problems. Last year my campaign group Parents & Teachers for Excellence – which campaigns to raise standards in state schools – logged 213 calls in the media for schools to teach something extra to address a perceived issue. When something is going
With our continued Brexit obsession, one could be forgiven for thinking that there was little else of significance going on in public policy. Not so, however, in the world of education. New statistics, published this morning by the Department of Education, show the full extent of ‘academisation’ – the quiet revolution originally started by Michael
One of the most successful political campaigns of recent years has been on school-funding, with various teaching unions driving home the message that state schools are desperately under-funded. This week, though, their credibility suffered a serious blow. Responding to a well-publicised campaign run by the National Education Union (a merger of the NUT and ATL unions), the UK Statistics
The Spectator’s Schools Revolution conference is being held on Tuesday next week. One of the speakers, Mark Lehain, writes below about his experience setting up a free school. Other speakers include Michael Gove, Michelle Rhee and Barbara Bergstrom, all of whom will take questions from the floor. There are still tickets available: to book, click
