The Department for Education is facing a second threat of legal challenge over its decision to establish Oak National Academy as an arm’s-length body.
Tes understands that the Publishers Association has issued a “letter before claim” to the DfE, meaning it is considering seeking a judicial review.
The move comes a month after Tes revealed that the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) had sent the DfE a letter before claim informing the department that it was considering seeking a judicial review over what it believes are unlawful actions.
Dan Conway, chief executive officer of the Publishers Association, said today: “Over a sustained period of time, we have tried to engage with the DfE on its takeover of Oak and are hugely disappointed that our concerns have not been taken into account. We had very much hoped that a compromise could be reached and continue to be proactive in suggesting potential solutions.
“As a last resort, and as the government continues pushing ahead with its plans, we can confirm that we have sent a letter before action to the Department for Education, hoping that the government will reconsider its current plans and acknowledge the advice of publishers, teachers and other experts in the sector.”
Controversy over Oak National Academy
The government’s plan for Oak “will be an unprecedented and unevidenced intervention that will cause irreparable damage to the education sector as we know it”, Mr Conway added.
He continued: “The government is not only putting unnecessary strain on stretched public funding for education, but also trying to create a one-size-fits-all state publisher that promotes a single curriculum, controlled by the education secretary of the day.”
This would undo years of work by publishers, he said, urging Oak and the DfE to rethink the plans.
Jonathan Dando, director of external relations and school support, said: “Just 0.3 per cent of teachers use Oak as their only source of resources. We’re actively supporting a thriving commercial market because we think it’s good for teachers to have choices.
“We’re investing an initial £8 million in organisations to share and develop curriculum materials and we’ll promote up to 80 offers from alternative providers.
“But, unlike some, we’ll always put what’s best for teachers first. Teachers want and hugely value the support of Oak. 32,000 continue to use us each week, and around half of our users say it lowers their workload, improves their wellbeing and increases their curriculum expertise.”
Last month Tes revealed that BESA had asked the department to withdraw funding for Oak, which was relaunched as a new arm’s-length curriculum resources body in September.
Oak is set to receive £43 million in funding over the next three years, with plans to spend £8 million on purchasing new lesson resources.
Last week the long-awaited government business case for Oak was published by the Cabinet Office, with the document claiming that there were two “main curriculum problems” in England’s schools: “Weaknesses in curriculum design and delivery, as reported by Ofsted, and excessive teacher workload associated with curriculum planning.”
Meanwhile, an invitation to tender (ITT) confirmed that Oak National Academy resources will be geo-blocked to users outside of the UK.
Oak also said in the ITT that it will “initially share the full curriculum packages on a domestic licence so any UK school or organisation can use and adapt them for non-commercial use”.
It also said it will consider “broadening this licence,” including reviewing the case for changes “up to and including alignment with the Open Government Licence”.
This move would allow anyone to “copy, publish, distribute, transmit and adapt the licensed work for both commercial and non-commercial use, with the individual acknowledging the source of the work”.
Speaking after the publication of the ITT and the business case last week, Mr Conway said the documents did ”not provide the reassurances we had hoped for”.
While the Publishers Association had been “given numerous assurances previously that Oak’s impact on the sector will remain small”, it was clear this was “not the case”, he said.
Today Tes also revealed that in the past academic year of 2021-22, more than four in 10 of Oak National Academy lessons were not completed.
And pupils in deprived areas were slightly less likely to complete lessons than their peers in more affluent areas, according to an analysis carried out by SchoolDash and shared with Tes.
The Department for Education has been contacted for comment.
