Government 'hiding' tuition fees plans in education bill

Thursday, 27 January 2011 5:25 PM

By Ian Dunt

The government has been accused of "hiding" controversial tuition fee proposals in a bill on classroom behaviour.

The education bill, published today, reveals government plans to radically increase teachers' authority over rowdy pupils but it also includes a clause allowing variable rates of interest on student loans.

The addition to the bill, which is otherwise dominated by proposals for schools, suggests a desperate attempt to secure changes to the repayment system before the new university funding system comes into place in 2012.

The University and College Union (UCU) accused the government of ducking further scrutiny of its "punitive" plans for university funding.

"The general public will see this for what it is - a stealth tax on learning and achievement - and it doesn't matter what piece of legislation the government tries to hide it in," general secretary Sally Hunt said.

"Sneaking these plans into a schools bill is yet another indication that the government has lost the argument on student funding and is terrified of further scrutiny of such a punitive policy."

National Union of Students (NUS) president Aaron Porter said: "Under the government's scheme, higher interest rates will hit those students who have to take out fee loans the hardest, whilst wealthier students who do not have to take out loans will escape higher interest charges."

He added: "Muslim students have repeatedly voiced concern that the new system means that student loans will break Islamic teachings that they should not take loans that incur interest charges.

"The government's own impact assessment accepts there is a significant problem with Islamic finance, and yet by rushing ahead before the government have even published legislation, they risk punishing those with certain religious beliefs."

The bulk of the bill concerns discipline in schools. It allows for headteachers to discipline pupils on their way to or from school and impose a detention with 24 hours' notice.

School appeal boards will no longer be able to reinstate expelled pupils and teachers accused of misconduct by pupils will be granted anonymity.

Education and children's bill

A new board will be able to undertake independent reviews of headteachers' decisions, however, and schools would have to fund the alternative school for expelled students.

Teachers will be able to search pupils for a range of forbidden items, including pornography and phones.

The education secretary also announced plans to set up a unit to monitor political and religious extremism in the Department of Education. That move follows criticism that the free schools agenda could allow for extremist teaching in schools.

Teaching unions were unimpressed by the measures. Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) said: "Despite the education secretary's claims that he wants to remove the 'dead hand' of government from schools, this bill appears to do exactly the opposite and will lead to a greater centralisation of power."

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT said the bill showed signs of having been written by a "power junkie".

He added: "The rhetoric surrounding the bill is 'localism'. The reality is unprecedented, massive centralisation of power.

"The bill gives the secretary of state around fifty new powers. He can seize land to set up new schools, revise local authority budgets, close schools on a whim, and make up his own definition of what early education means."

"This government backs teachers," Mr Gove said.

"All the evidence from those countries with great education systems tells us that nothing is more important than attracting great people into teaching and supporting them in the classroom.

"Under the last government, thousands of great people left the teaching profession because behaviour was out of control and they were forced to spend far too much time on paperwork. That's why we're taking action to restore discipline and reduce bureaucracy."

The attempt to increase school discipline follows similar attempts by Labour, which even allowed for the use of knife scanners at the school entrance.

Government education plans will also see a toughening up of the requirements needed to become a teacher, a return to a more traditional focus in the curriculum, a more 'narrative' approach to history teaching reform of the exam and test system and changes to school funding.

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