Three into two won’t go
The County Council in Suffolk has decided to recommend that the three tier school system should merge into two, the same arrangement as with most of the rest of the country.
Parents are very anguished because they do not like change: they are committed to the existing schools and the staff who teach there. The County Council has produced evidence to suggest that a two tier system enhances educational achievement.
All of us will remember being somewhat disoriented when we ourselves moved from primary to secondary schooling – some head teachers feel concerned that this happens twice in Suffolk.
At the heart of many peoples’ concerns is the range and scale of reorganisation which has afflicted our public services. In my Parliamentary lifetime, we have gone from a West Suffolk Health Authority to a pan Suffolk Health Authority, then five primary Care Trusts, then three, then back to one. The administration of the NHS really has deteriorated. Similarly we have seen reorganisation in local government and local criminal justice – has performance improved?
The key question is – even if there is educational improvement, is it enough to offset all the inevitable cost, financial and human, that this change would bring about. This is not, of course, a party political issue but already the Liberal Democrats are sniffing the wind, and no doubt Labour too, to see how the debate and consultation plays out. Regrettably, you can be sure that on their local track record their judgment will not exclude any possible party political advantage. We wait to see!