The government is to legislate to oblige state schools to inform students not only about university options but about vocational choices such as apprenticeships (Report, 18 January). Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, blames the prvious Labour government’s target of getting 50% of young people into higher education as responsible for “snobbery” about vocational choices. Political and official memories are often conveniently short. Nicky Morgan’s Tory predecessor as education secretary abolished the careers service a few years ago and threw the responsibility, unfunded, on to schools.
The “snobbery” problem is by far from new. When I was responsible for policy on these matters in the early 1990s, it was well known that too many secondary schools made it difficult for students to access material about non-university choices. My inspection staff regularly reported such cases: schools where vocational careers material was kept in the head’s office, only to be obtained by personal request; local authorities where secondary heads with sixth forms sought to exclude the careers service, which was charged with providing objective support to young people. We put a stop to these practices where they were found. If Nicky Morgan wants her new law to change practices and attitudes, she will need to find an effective enforcement mechanism.
There is one aspect of these proposals which is outrageous. The new law will, it seems, apply only to “state” – ie local authority – schools. Academies and free schools will not be subject to the new law. Could there be a clearer signal of the direction of broader Tory policy on secondary education? Local authority schools for the oiks, not suitable for academic education, and academies and free schools for the middle classes who curiously are, by definition, more intelligent. The sheer irrelevance to the country’s economic future and the potential damage to many young people are enough to make one weep.
Valerie Bayliss
Director of youth and education policy, Department of Employment, 1991-96
• Your endorsement (Report, 22 January) of a Muslim girls’ school references their management policies and the fact that their GCSE results compare favourably to other schools with at least 30% of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. Might the results also be due to the selection of pupils by gender and faith? Dr Steve Gibbons and Dr Olmo Silva of the LSE found in a 2009 study that the benefit of primary faith schools appeared to be mostly due to the selection process, rather than the teaching. Joined to the fact girls outperform boys, the unfair comparison here seems to undervalue the teaching at comprehensive schools.
Alex Willmer
St Albans, Hertfordshire
