Islington Council’s Labour leader has declared her vehement opposition to academies and pledged to fight for their return to local authority control. Speaking at election hustings on Wednesday evening, Councillor Una O’Halloran criticised academy CEOs, stating: “I do not believe CEOs should be in these places because some of them have never even experienced being in a classroom or being a teacher.”
Academies Under Fire
Her comments came in response to a question from Rob Burrett, a teacher from the National Education Union (NEU), who highlighted how languages and arts had been stripped from the curriculum and asked how to restore “democratic accountability” in education. Cllr O’Halloran responded: “I’ll use my voice and fight for schools to come back under local authority control. I just think academies are the worst thing, they’re like small private businesses.”
Councillor Ilkay Cinko-Oner, from the Islington Community Independents, proposed that academies should report to local authorities rather than the Department for Education. “We should introduce mandatory regular meetings every three months between academy CEOs, local councillors, parents and teachers,” she said. “We want a system that believes that children should be nurtured and not punished.”
Green Party and Lib Dem Perspectives
The Green Party leader, Councillor Benali Hamdache, echoed the call to end academies, describing them as a “dangerous experiment” introduced under previous governments. “There’s no evidence to show that there was any improvement in education,” he argued. “In fact, quite the counter. These schools cost more money. We turned headteachers into CEOs, we saw core subjects stripped away, we saw students being expelled rather than nurtured.”
Lib Dem leader Terry Stacy, a governor for 35 years, warned that recent school closures in the borough would leave land vacant. Referring to the controversial closure of Highbury Quadrant due to falling school rolls, Mr Stacy said: “That school will stay there and rot for the next five years. This council can’t do anything for that site as it can’t do anything for the other sites because of this government’s inability to try and make decisions about education, land and buildings.”
Defence and Conservative View
Cllr O’Halloran defended the closure, stating: “I believe we made the right decisions, and I’ve written to the Secretary of State about school buildings and you’re right, it should be used for housing, and if not it should be used for educational use and apprentices. I’m looking at all options.”
Conservative chair Nick Brainsby acknowledged that Michael Gove had introduced “a number of very effective reforms” but added: “I do believe that schools should have the most amount of autonomy and I am quite sceptical about the way academies have been run and I strongly believe in reviewing how that system works to provide for the best education.”
The debate highlights deep divisions over the future of academies in Islington, with local leaders calling for greater democratic oversight and a shift away from what they see as a privatised model of education.
