Clause 82 - Power to alter or remove requirements for the fourth key stage
Education Bill
5:45 pm
Mr Phil Willis (Harrogate and Knaresborough, Liberal Democrat)
Clause 82 restates section 368 of the 1996 Act, so it is not new. What has changed is the fact that part I and clauses dealing with earned autonomy allow groups of schools to disapply or change the national curriculum, which can also occur through innovation.
The clause implies that only the Secretary of State may order or amend. If, under earned autonomy, a school wants to change key stage 4 and opt for the intermediate international baccalaureate—or, in Wales, the Welsh baccalaureate—would permission of the Secretary of State be required, or can schools act individually through earned autonomy to apply the clause to their circumstances? It should be clarified whether the 10 per cent. of schools that gain earned autonomy—it relates only to pay and conditions and the national curriculum—are most likely to exercise it in respect of key stage 4, for which changes in the curriculum are expected.
When the Minister—I am delighted that it will be the Under-Secretary of State for Education and Skills—responds, he will be unable to disclose the contents of the Green Paper on the 14-19 curriculum, which I understand is being published next week. The Bill must meet the requirements of the 14-19 curriculum—flexible provision to allow schools and colleges to offer a plethora of different types of post-14 curriculums. Under the 1996 Act, schools were not intended to have the level of autonomy that the Secretary of State wants to give them. Nor did today's plethora of different school organisations then exist. Grant-maintained schools were the only exception to the main rule: everyone else fitted into the traditional patterns.
We are now going to have city technology colleges, academies, perhaps city academies, a plethora of different faith schools and all sorts of different organisations. We hope that we are also going to see 14-19 organisations reflecting, as in Exeter, a dynamic view of a new education system with a different vision. I am not trying to be difficult, but trying to clarify that this part of the Bill—my amendment to clause 82 is only one example—will not thwart the opportunities coming down the road.