Schools representative assails free education scheme

London: Andy Falconer, the new chair of the Independent Association of Preparatory Schools (IAPS), said the government's plans for free schools "reinvented the wheel".

Free schools, founded by parents, teachers and private firms, are a flagship government policy inspired by similar initiatives in Sweden and the United States.

Earlier this month, the education secretary, Michael Gove, gave 16 schools initial approval. Ministers hope at least some will be ready to open by next September. The schools will be run as academies, independent of local authority control.

But Falconer argues that private schools already perform the role that ministers want for free schools and was to reiterate his view at the IAPS annual conference in London yesterday.

"Many of us in the independent sector have remarked on the similarity between our schools and the Department for Education's vision for new free schools," the headteacher of St Olave's school in York, said.

Financial aid proposed

"One of the reasons I feel that there has been a slow take-up on the introduction of free schools is that once people really start to look at how much it takes to be truly independent, to have no back up or safety net from the local authority or the government, then they start to glimpse the enormity of the challenge ahead."

Falconer, whose association represents more than 500 schools in the UK, sought that the government give parents the amount it costs to educate their child through primary school — £6,000 (Dh34,855) — and allow them to choose the school they wish. He advocates that parents should be able to supplement the sum if they want to educate children in the private sector.

"Why exactly is our government investing time and money in free schools when the concept of schools which are independent of government control alredy exists," he asked.

"Surely widening access to our schools would do so much more than trying to reinvent the wheel. We already accept the reality of private health care, with the NHS using private hospitals to deliver some of its services."