Education Bill Will Not Be 'Watered Down'.

Mon, May 15, 2006

Source: Teaching Times

Alan Johnson, the new Education Secretary has said that he will not make any changes to the government’s proposed Education Bill to water it down, simply to appease Labour rebels.

Alan Johnson, the new Education Secretary has said that he will not make any changes to the government’s proposed Education Bill to water it down, simply to appease Labour rebels.
 
Speaking at the Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney, East London, he said that his firm intention was for the bill to pass into law, no matter which method was taken – with Labour or Conservative backing.

Already, Labour ministers have had to make a number of changes to reforms to win more support for the Education Bill, with a large number of backbenchers worried over the issues of selection, and the intention to give faith schools and private businesses more control over state schools.

Since taking over as Education Secretary from Ruth Kelly, Mr Johnson has been scrutinised on faith schools and private-funded city academies.

 These are schools who are teaching in accordance with the national curriculum.

In particular, many have expressed their concerns over faith-based schools of a fundamentalist nature in the government’s education reforms, with some sceptics saying that certain schools are too strongly focused on certain types of Christian teaching.

Mr Johnson dismissed as ‘myths’ allegations which have been made about the academy scheme, saying that he could understand the concerns critics had over the scheme if they were based on claims that city academies are taught Creationism and forced to dress up as ‘McDonald's burgers’.

“That just cannot happen. These are schools who are teaching in accordance with the national curriculum,” he said.

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