The ‘academy’ system evolved in Scandanavia and was designed as a means for the local people who had children attending schools – to have a greater say in how government money (secured by widespread taxation gathered throughout society) was to be best spent in the moulding of young mind and bodies. Since the end of WWII, however, Scandanavia has pursued the social and cultural path of democratic Socialism practiced within a carefully controlled capitalist system (a subtle balance of ‘fixed’ and ‘free’ economy). This is very different to the UK that has pursued, at least since 1950 (when Britain’s post-war experiment with ‘Socialism’ was brought to an end with the Tory defeat of the incumbent left-wing Labour Party that founded the NHS and the Welfare State), when the full embracing of US-style ‘free market’ economics was embraced, perpetuated and developed. Where the UK diverted to the right (an oddity for a country that at one-point stood-alone in the fight against Nazi Germany) – the Scandinavians diverted to the left (a far cry from numerous Scandinavian young men who volunteered for Hitler’s ‘SS’ during WWII – apparently falling for his false ideology of racial supremacy).
As a consequence, the modern ‘academy’ school system – or more properly ‘experiment’ – remained within the firm, comforting and guiding embrace of the Socialist system in Scandinavia – whilst by comparison manifesting within a the stark, cold and brutal system of the predatory capitalist environment prevalent in the UK. It must be added that in virtually ALL such experiments that were attempted in Scandinavia, each academy was an abysmal failure – with all returning to eventual full State-control. The reason for this was that when the original generation of children grew-up and moved away from each school concerned – the governing parental committees, councils and hierarchies fell apart as the adults concerned lost interest in everyday-school happenings, and left the establishments ‘ungoverned’ and in a shambolic state. These Scandinavian schools were never fully ‘disconnected’ from the State, and there was never a policy of creating such a school system ‘outside’ the State. This is the major difference between the Scandinavian academy system and the current British incarnation of it, as in the latter, this policy has been implemented by the Tories (and LibDems) post-2010 as a means to ‘privatise’ the country’s schools and ‘extract’ each school itself completely from the safety of State control and government regulation (although the roots of this policy lie with ‘New Labour’ and its (right-wing) neo-liberal policies enacted during its stint in power – 1997-2010).
Whereas the Scandinavian model ‘redistributed’ already gathered revenue to committees of motivated parents (probably premised upon a similar convention seen in the USSR), the British system is designed to turn the school-children of the UK into means through which private ‘business’ companies (and not local parents per se – unless, of course, the ‘local parents’ happen to own or work in ‘local’ business) can generate ‘profit’ in any way they see fit, as defined through the ‘agreement’ they possess granted to them by the ‘Home Secretary.’ This means that the people who take over the administration of these schools are no longer ‘government’ employees, (that is properly trained and qualified ‘civil servants’), but are recruited from private business backgrounds. This tends to lead to an extensive system of ‘nepotism’ which sees entire families appointing one another to the numerous (and quite often ‘fallacious’) positions of authority acting in and around the academy – whilst parents are continuously sent emails and letters demanding money on a daily basis to ‘pay’ the academy for educational purposes that were provided ‘free of charge’ when the academy was a proper ‘school’ under State control.
What the general population of the UK does not comprehend is that the academy system is the first step on the path for the total ‘privatisation’ of the British education system. The end product is intended that any parents of children attending ‘academies’ will have to ‘pay’ out of their personal finance – or their children will not be educated. This marks a return to Victorian standards of education in the UK. As it is, these academies are allowed to use the attending school-children as advertising billboards – as leaflets from local private businesses are continuously placed in the school-bags of young children designed for their parents to see and make use of. Mufti-days – which sees children wear their own clothes – is used by the ‘academies’ to ‘charge’ the parents for their children to do so. Another ridiculous example involves the ‘charging’ of parents for their children to ‘wear their own shoes’! The corrupt nature of this academy system is in the public domains and can be examined at Warwick Mansell’s excellent website: Education Uncovered – Digging around in the undergrowth of Schools Reform in England.’
Sutton, although now situated in South-West ‘Greater London’, until 1965 Sutton was an affluent outcrop of ‘East Surrey’, and when it was incorporated into London, there was much resistance from the local (and highly ‘conservative’) population! Today, this area of Sutton remains staunchly ‘conservative’ whilst also containing a substantial non-White population. Under the UK’s membership of the EU – a large ‘White’ but ‘foreign’ population also resided in Sutton with many such individuals and groups still living in the Borough. Black, Asian and Chinese people comprise most of the non-White population – with my family being part of the British Chinese population of Sutton. We currently have two daughters of educational-age who are slowly but surely navigating their way through the Borough’s privatised academy system and everything that means for a child of non-White or foreign parentage. However, I want to tell the story of a clear case of racism carried-out at a school academy operating in Sutton – namely Cheam Park Farm School (as this is an ongoing legal matter, I have withheld personal names at this juncture – but will include all those involved and who have colluded with the involved – at a later convenient date).
A nine-year-old girl who excels academically, suffered a verbal, racist attack by a supply teacher during early January of this year. When the nine-year-old girl ‘withheld her labour’ and refused to complete a simple test out of protest – the supply teacher frog-marched the nine-year-old girl to see the ‘Principal.’ The nine-year-old girl tried to ‘report’ the supply teacher (a female) but the elderly (male) ‘Principal’ refused to acknowledge, record or act upon this complaint. Instead, he kept repeating that all the problems of the nine-year-old girl was due to her ‘home life’! When the nine-year-old girl was eventually released from the ‘locked’ room – she was returned to the classroom that was still under the control the same supply teacher who had committed the offence! The ‘Principal’ then had the mother of the nine-year-old girl contacted by telephone – falsely stating that an ‘emergency’ was underway and that she had to immediately attend the school. When arriving, the mother was ushered into the office of the ‘Principal’ and told that he was contacting ‘Social Services’ due to the disruptive behaviour of her daughter!
This is just one example of the corrupt academy system that is now operating within the UK! A child does not have to be ‘non-White’ to suffer abuse – but racism is certainly one very strong strand of this corruption. Many stories of the academy abuse involve the ‘poverty’ of the child concerned, yet another failing of the ongoing Tory system that brought-in the academy system. Despite around 50% of the schools our children attend being of a non-White’ or ‘foreign’ background – invariably, all the staff are ‘White’ British. In other words, these academies are business playthings for ‘White’ people in the UK who are being allowed by the Tory government to ride roughshod over the rights and dignity of ‘non-White’ British children! The point is that ALL British people should unite to put an end to the ongoing criminality that is the British academy system. We must ALL stand together in the face of this tyranny and protect the well-being of our children with our collective minds and bodies!
THE SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 