Educational publishers and suppliers have hit out at the “rushed plan” for Oak National Academy to become a national curriculum resources provider, claiming it has been “hurried through” by a “caretaker government”.
Yesterday Oak confirmed that it will be launched as a government arm’s-length body in September.
However, the multi-academy trust United Learning, which provided a large number of resources for the platform, pulled its lessons from the handover, saying it was “wrong for government to take over the Oak resources”.
And today Dan Conway, chief executive officer of the Publishers Association, said the organisation was “extremely concerned” to hear that the Department of Education was making its plans for Oak National Academy “even more far-reaching than previously proposed”.
The more limited approach that the Publishers Association said it was expecting included “light-touch exemplification” as opposed to “comprehensive resources”.
The organisation also said that it understood the DfE would share details of the evidence supporting the plan, such as demand from parents or teachers, but that it had failed to do so.
Oak National Academy controversy
Mr Conway added that the new Oak body will ”put further strain on already stretched public funds” and “risk severely damaging teacher choice and learner outcomes”, as it “strips” teachers of “autonomy” and “creativity”.
“Instead of teachers choosing what’s best for their pupils, Whitehall will decide exactly what each of our children learn in school and how,” he said.
Furthermore, Mr Conway said that the move will risk causing “irreparable damage to the commercial education resources sector”.
“We are not alone in holding these very significant concerns and note United Learning’s decision to withdraw lessons and their unease about a ‘government-approved’ curriculum,” he added.
“Oak played an important role at a time of national crisis, but this rushed plan is a massive over-extension of their remit that will harm everyone in the sector. There’s no evidence teachers or parents want this, and it’s being hurried through without proper consultation or scrutiny by a caretaker government. We urge them to reconsider.”
Last month Tes revealed that bodies representing educational publishers, authors and suppliers had written to education secretary James Cleverly, asking the DfE to “reconsider” its “radical plans”, adding that a lack of scrutiny over the proposal had been “exacerbated by current political uncertainty”.
Threat of legal action
A threat of legal action also hangs over the relaunch.
In May of this year, the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) wrote to Nadhim Zahawi, when he was education secretary, to warn him that the organisation was considering seeking a judicial review over the plan to turn Oak into a quango.
While the legal action was paused after the department admitted it had not yet decided on crucial aspects of how the new arm’s length body would be run, BESA emphasised at the time that the legal action could still go ahead.
Following yesterday’s news, Caroline Wright, director-general at BESA, said: “BESA will be taking feedback on the issue from members and will consult with our lawyers over the detail outlined in the DfE’s announcement.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that Oak “grew out of the circumstances of the pandemic” to support schools “at a very difficult time”.
But he added that with the attempt to turn this into a permanent resource, there was “clearly a great deal of controversy”, leading to United Learning’s decision to withdraw from the platform.
He said there was also “disquiet from other providers of education resources about the impact that having a government-backed initiative of this nature will have on the wider market, with the potential for this leading to a reduction in the choice of resources in the longer term”.
“It is also not clear as to the extent of the demand from schools for Oak’s resources. The government needs to be clearer about all these matters,” Mr Barton said.
An Oak National Academy spokesperson said: “There is clear demand for Oak’s curriculum and lesson resources, with over 30,000 teachers and 170,000 pupils continuing to use them each week. When asked what support teachers want to develop and improve their curriculum, their top answer was more quality materials. And they want these to be free or affordable.
“Oak National Academy will always be independent of government and all our resources will be entirely optional, adaptable and free. This is right because teachers know their pupils best; they will always carefully choose their resources and adapt them to cater for their needs.
“We are grateful to United Learning for the contribution it has made to Oak, and we’re very pleased it will continue to host the lessons it made on its platform. A choice of more quality resources can only be a good thing for teachers and pupils”
The DfE has been approached for comment.
