The end of ‘Stalinist’ educational centralisation?

Broadly speaking, when it comes to education I take the view that more choice is always better than less choice. This was why, in 1988, I was opposed to the introduction of the National Curriculum in England and Wales. I argued that it would introduce an era of increased government meddling wand this would result in increased secularisation in our schools, far less choice for parents and students and no real improvement in education. I am not one to say ‘I told you so’ but I cannot help but feel that events over the last twenty years have confirmed my concerns; indeed, recent reports have suggested that maths and reading standards are no better than they were in the 1950s. The Cambridge Prmary Review, even went so far as to describe our current system as having ‘Stalinist overtones‘ in its obsession with central government control over all things educational!

This brings me to an interesting article that I read last week relating to Swedish ‘free schools’. Since the 1990s, parents, charities and even businesses in Sweden have been permitted to set up non-fee-paying schools, funded by the government; parents are provided with a ‘virtual voucher’ currently worth around £7,000 which they can spend at any ordinary state school or independent ‘free school’ that they prefer. In 1992, the Swedes dismantled a monolithic state-run education system (which already had very good standards, one might add) to create a radical system where student and parental choice was made a priority. What is now particularly interesting is that the Conservatives have expressed an interest in introducing similar reforms in the UK, if they win the forthcoming general election in 2010. I am not an especially political animal and I have to confess that I have never voted Conservative in my life! However, one cannot help but feel that educational choice and the freedom that would inevitably follow, would serve families far better than the pseudo-pontifical pronouncements of any Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families. And even those of us who home educate, have to see this as a good thing!