Fair choice 'needs good schools'

The only way to get a fair admissions system is by removing all poor schools, says Schools Secretary Ed Balls.

School admissions will continue to cause heartache for parents until "every school is a good school", he told a head teachers' conference.

Mr Balls promised a national plan to improve 638 schools deemed to be struggling in England.

Next week the government will publish details of how many children failed to get their first choice of school.

Addressing the Association of School and College Leaders conference, Mr Balls conceded that disappointed parents would feel that the current admissions system was unfair.

'Long-term solution'

"Where one school is doing well and nearby schools are struggling, that is not real choice for parents," he told head teachers.

The conference is being held in Brighton, which has adopted a lottery system for school places, but Mr Balls refused to be drawn on whether this seemed fair.

He pointed to the way that allocating places by proximity to a school was also seen as unfair - saying that any system would feel unfair to families that failed to get their choice.

The only long-term solution to admissions disputes, he argued, was to remove the problem of under-performing secondary schools completely.

And he promised further action to improve or remove the worst-performing schools.

Mr Balls said there were currently 638 schools in which less than 30% of pupils achieved five good GCSEs including English and maths.

Over the next five years, a national campaign will reduce that number to zero, he promised.

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Association of School and College Leaders
Department for Children, Schools and Families
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