I see Anders Hultin is due to speak at the c4education conference about the Swedish Free School system. Talk about being topical, timely and controversial. I must remember to keep quiet during this presentation!!!
The introduction says the Swedish system is 10 years ahead of ours … that’s debatable
Introduced in 1992 in Sweden, Free School legislation, meant that anyone could apply to set up a Free school provided they met certain qualifications, including a building and had market research. They are not allowed to charge a top up free and no selection process, first come first served. Came about as part of an election manifesto pledge. They were surprised by the number of applications.
Since 1992 there has been an increase from less than 10 free schools to over 1000. Nowadays, most pupils attend a free school.
Allmost 3/4 of schools are owned by profit making organisations and not by charities. Four companies seem to dominate the market. Free schools struggled at first but grew by forming alliances of free schools and joining others. Success is determined by independence from bureaucracy and politicians. The involvement of profit making organisations created a drive for expansion and investment. The large number of Free Schools now provides a wide variety of choice for parents and pupils.Each school has a low entrance barrier; no pupil can be turned away once granted a place.
There has been an increase in pupil satisfaction at attending school. Pupils in Free Schools perform better by 10% than equivalent in state schools.
Free schools get less money than state schools. I wonder if this is behind the current government thinking!
Impact in UK could be the same as in Sweden, potential 6000 new Free Schools in the UK. Leading to a migration of about 50000 pupils from state schools to Free Schools. This could also be challenging for Private schools and maybe these will be among the first to create free schools.
Anders believes the Free School movement will be a success in the UK, there is popular support (?), independent schools are struggling and the government has set up a good application system.
He also questions if Parent’s groups could run schools along business models, which is the approach adopted in UK. Can Government afford the capital expenditure as profit making organisations are not allowed to invest?
Can Free Schools survive where there is no need for more school places, as is case in UK. Does the Gov have a will to introduce innovation and new techniques or advances. Anders questions current government’s philosophy of education.
It seems that Anders is raising as many negative as positive points about the scheme in England. Basically, in Sweden it has worked but that, on its own, does not mean it will work in UK. There are significant differences between the two models, Swedish and English, which raise questions and could impact upon success.
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- Michael Gove’s free schools face costly challenge | Michael White’s political briefing (guardian.co.uk)
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- Free Schools (edugeek.net)
- Sweden’s free schools model has ‘limited impact’ (independent.co.uk)
- Will Michael Gove’s schools reforms push up standards? (newstatesman.com)
- ‘Free schools’ invitations issued (news.bbc.co.uk)
- You: School plan ‘takes money from poor’ (guardian.co.uk)
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Post Revisions:
- 25 June, 2010 @ 11:43 [Current Revision] by doug
- 25 June, 2010 @ 11:42 by doug
- 24 June, 2010 @ 10:21 by doug
