Lighthouses or follies? Academies and New Labour's version of history

摘要

This essay focuses attention on the UK government’s Academies project, and more specifically on the claims that have been made for the project by its apologists. It contests the version of history that underpins these claims, challenging the notion that comprehensive schools amount to a failed experiment. Linked to the Academies programme is the goal of social mobility: this is critiqued both as an abandonment of long-standing commitments to social justice and as unrealisable through the pursuit of current policies.