Back in October 2022, in my Digital Education newsletter, I wrote the following:
Let's keep the arms length body at arms length
Sherlock Holmes, by Terry Freedman
The Department for Education has expressed the wish to take the Oak Academy into a form of public ownership in the form of an arms length body (ALB), which probably doesn't mean what it seems to mean. "Arms length" would imply no interference in the market for educational resources, so the very existence of an ALB is a contradiction in terms.
If the original plans go ahead (which considering we're now on our fourth education secretary since the plans were launched in March 2022 is not guaranteed I shouldn't have thought), the DfE will start commissioning resources from the Oak Academy. The Oak provided useful resources during the lockdowns, and continues to create them. But there are four things wrong with the DfE's plan:
Firstly, it skews the market. How long will it be before publishers stop producing perfectly good resources because they fail to meet the DfE's criteria?
Secondly, some small publishers, which could include individual teachers, could find find it hard to sell their wares unless they sell out.
Thirdly, I presume the DfE will commission resources in accordance with their preferred teaching methods and principles, regardless of any evidence that they work.
Fourthly, what hubris, what arrogance, to think that being a politician or a Civil Servant gives you more understanding than people who have been trained as, and have worked as, teachers!
The DfE should learn humility, or at least learn from Sherlock Holmes in the story A Scandal in Bohemia:
“I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.”
If you feel that the DfE should adopt a hands-off approach, you could write to your MP. The arguments have been set out by the Publishers Association, and you could use their letter as the basis for your own.
Update: good news
According to an email I’ve received from the UK’s Society of Authors:
“The Society of Authors are acting as co-claimants, along with the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) and the Publishers Association (PA), in Judicial Review proceedings in respect of the Department for Education’s proposed operating model for its new arm’s length body, Oak National Academy.
The claim, in which the National Education Union are also participating as an “interested party”, was launched last week. It is has been issued as a last resort, to try to prevent harmful government intervention in the educational writing market.”
Find out more from the following press releases:
Society of Authors press release
Publishers Association press release
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