Free schools 'are ludicrous'

February 08 2011

Free schools are divisive and will be a "blot on the landscape", it has been claimed.

Ian Fenn, a headteacher in Manchester, pointed out that they do not have to employ "real teachers".

"They're not bound by the national curriculum and it's an affront to the teaching profession for people to think that schools can be run by people who know nothing about it," he told the BBC.

"It's a bit like me saying I'm going to start up a hospital because I fancy wearing a stethoscope - it's ludicrous."

Mr Fenn, who is also Manchester's anti-extremism tsar, suggested that free schools enable groups to set up "silos of mutually exclusive populations" and make it more difficult for different communities to connect with each other.

The government held its first free schools conference in London last month, with the event attended by more than 400 teachers, parents and education experts.

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