Such a process finds its roots in Con-Lib policies since the coalition Government has made conversion of schools into academies much easier. Such a figure constitutes a mere fraction of all English schools and the genuine “schools revolution” promised in the 2010 Conservative manifesto 11 is rather underpinned by the conversion of many into academies.Ħ In 2010-11, there were 801 academies and in May 2012, according to the DfE, “42 % of state-funded mainstream secondary schools and 3 % of state-funded mainstream primary schools were academies” 12. BROWN NUMBER PRESS 611P FREEAccording to an official press release on 3 September 2013, the total number of free schools stands at 174 with 93 opening in September 2013 10. Their development was made possible by the 2010 Academies Act and would-be initiators need the Education Secretary's approval to ensure public funding through a funding agreement for the new school. The Government's objectives were clearly set in May 2010 regarding free schools : “We also believe that the state should help parents, community groups and others come together to improve the education system by starting new schools” 9. “Plans to diversify schools provision” feature in the coalition's Programme for Government 8 and two types of schools in particular have been enthusiastically put forward, free schools and academies. Beyond budget cuts in real terms for universities and declining funding for schools if we take inflation into account, what policies has the Con-Lib coalition Government been offering ? Con-Lib education policies : Something oldĥ We will now deal with key education policies such as school and provider diversification, standards, school autonomy and accountability. The latter recorded “first real-terms fall in total income since financial information was first collected across the whole sector in 1994-95” 7. This entailed a drop in university funding, in teaching budgets particularly 6, and this was made clear in the 2013 overview of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). 6 40% in October 2010, Harrison 20 October 2010.Ĥ In 2010, higher education funding was reformed with a decrease in teaching grants and an increase in university tuition fees, which marked a major evolution as Naomi Hodgson highlighted in a 2012 article : “The shift from teaching grants to repayable tuition loans shifts the emphasis from publicly funded higher education to financing universities on the basis of the individual students it can attract” 5.
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