Education systems
I am delighted to stand here and passionately discuss about management in education systems. I am convinced that academies and free schools are not new words to us; you probably have heard some parents say, “My child is in an academy”, right? My focus will not be on the definition of these words, but on the management style, which I consider unique from that of the maintained systems.
Does any one of have an idea of when and where academies and free school were started and their difference from the maintained schools? Well, the history of Academies dates back to the year 2000 and is credited to the Swedish charter schools (Gov. UK). Common factors that distinguish this system from others are that they are semi independent, management in this system is well defined; this system is managed by private teams of sponsors who delegate school management to a credited board of governors (Machin & Vernoit, 2011). School board takes full responsibility of employing staff, setting pay plus employment conditions (Machin & Vernoit, 2011). Local authorities lack mandate to control academies, governing principles in academies are credited with immense autonomy (Machin & Vernoit, 2011).
It is important that you all note that, despite differences in academies and maintained school systems, some similarities in school management of these two systems are evident, for example, they receive state funding from central government (Gov. UK). Maintained school systems and academies use same laws when admitting students. Academies that perform extremely well associate and share expertise with other schools, in most cases, they collaborate with schools considered weak in performance (Machin & Vernoit, 2011).
References
Gov. UK. (n.d.). Academies and Free schools. Retrieved 5 18, 2015, from https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/academies-and-free-schools
Machin, S., & Vernoit, J. (2011). Changing School Autonomy; Academy schools and their introduction to Englands Education. London: Center of the Economics of Education.