'What better way to give the market a filip than by offering an affordable version of the private-sector blazers and boaters to aspirant parents in the Middle East and east Asia, and South America?' Photograph: AlamyIt is less than a month since David Cameron's plan to allow English academies and free schools to sell places to overseas students was leaked and promptly disowned, largely due to the negative coverage. The vision of queue-jumping foreign children in areas where there aren't enough places for local families led to a swift U-turn.
But the education export strategy is anything but dead. It has just popped up again in a new form. Instead of international pupils coming here, academy chains will go to them, freshly minted with a new British "kitemark", able to charge fees and ready to take their place in the global market.
There is a logic to the plan if you believe, as the coalition clearly does, that education is a product to be bought and sold. The global education market is now worth around $4.5 trillion. All over the world providers and governments are scrambling to grab a share, either by importing overseas students to domestic universities; cashing in on the massive "edtech" market; or running global chains of schools. A particularly English sideline has been the establishment of overseas branches of elite public schools, such as Harrow, Wellington and Dulwich College. It is a combination of these last two approaches that the government has latched on to.
The development of the edu-business at home is sluggish. The public remains stubbornly resistant to the idea of "for profit" schools. All academies and free schools – and indeed most private schools – have charitable status, which the government's education export policy document points out "does not lend itself to rapid growth". Lack of affordable, available sites, particularly in urban areas, makes expansion of existing academies and free school chains difficult. So what better way to give the market a filip than by offering an affordable version of the private-sector blazers and boaters, maybe with a bit of academy military discipline thrown in, to aspirant parents in the Middle East, east Asia, and South America.
But this is not risk-free from the point of view of the domestic pupils for whose benefit academies and free schools were originally set up. The chains may be currently not for profit, but as they become more heavily subsidised by revenue from overseas, inevitably saving the British government money, how long would it be before fees and the for-profit motive start to infiltrate the domestic market?
The Institute of Education's Professor Stephen Ball has been tracking the global education business for several decades. He points out that this market tends to be dominated by a few big players – multinational companies who gradually hoover up smaller providers and individual schools in the host countries.
Rapid expansion and the drive for profitability often lead to a corporate culture and standardisation in terms of teaching, learning and the curriculum – which sits uneasily with the coalition rhetoric about autonomy and diversity. Cost-cutting often follows, resulting in high pupil-teacher ratios. In extreme cases the companies collapse, leaving pupils, teachers and parents high and dry. "It is no different to any other business. Rapid expansion can be managed successfully but it can also impact on quality or lead to failure." says Ball.
The recent collapse of the Swedish free school group JB Education set alarm bells ringing about the once lauded Nordic model of for-profit chains. Concerns have also been aired in Britain about the rapid expansion of existing academy chains such as the Academies Enterprise Trust, which runs more than 60 schools but has been barred from taking on more by the Department for Education.
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the development of the global edu-business is the way in which it is starting to mimic the worst aspects of the English school system, with a steep hierarchy in status, fees and educational offer. At the top end is the glossy elite sector offering a costly English public-school education; then come the commercial giants like GEMS, the largest for profit school chain in the world, with everything from the faux public school model to low-cost schools catering for up to 8,000 children in poorer communities; and at the bottom end are the online virtual schools, often teacher-free, adopted by some of the American charter schools chains.
No doubt the English academies would find their place in this complex new world. But it would be a long way from their original mission to offer pupils in the most disadvantaged communities a new start and fresh leadership – and an unnecessary distraction from the challenges many still face at home.
50 States and their Mottos by artist Emily Wick, from the book Mapping America, Exploring the Continent. Photograph: Black Dog Publishing Ltd