Rob Burrett from the National Education Union

ISLINGTON Council’s Labour leader told election hustings on Wednesday evening that she vehemently opposed academies – which were introduced under Tony Blair’s premiership – and would fight for them to be brought back into local authority control.

Councillor Una O’Halloran said: “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.”

Her comments came in response to a question from Rob Burrett, a teacher from the NEU (National Education Union), who told the panel how languages and arts had been stripped out of the curriculum and asked how to bring back “democratic accountability” for education.

“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,” Cllr O’Halloran added.

Councillor Ilkay Cinko-Oner, from the Islington Community Independents, called for academies to 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 added.

“We want a system that believes that children should be nurtured and not punished.”

Her argument to put an end to academies was echoed by Green Party leader Councillor Benali Hamdache who said it was time to end the “dangerous experiment” brought in under previous governments.

“There’s no evidence to show that there was any improvement in education,” he said.

“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.”

Meanwhile, Lib Dem leader Terry Stacy, who had been a governor for 35 years, warned the audience that recent school closures in the borough would leave land empty.

Speaking about the controversial shutting 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.”

Cllr O’Halloran defended the move, however, saying: “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 insisted Michael Gove has 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.”