Of Academies and Academe

The University of Durham is rightly seeking to co-sponsor City Academies in County Durham, but Oxford and Cambridge have both declined to do so in their respective localities. They are wrong. The people who know about education are educationalists, part of the broader principle that the people who know about public service are public servants, something which, it must be said, academics sometimes have difficulty remembering that they are, but which no one involved in the running of these schools could be expected to forget.

The Political Class's infatuation with handing over public services to the private sector is a result of having little or no experience of that sector, and thus little or no idea that, however good it might be at what it does and however important that might be in itself, that has nothing whatever to do with running schools, or hospitals, or any other public service. Any opportunity to to keep public services public must be grasped with both hands, whether keeping schools public or keeping universities conscious of their public responsibilities. Universities should sponsor Academies wherever possible.