Dr Ian Craig had been criticized by Government for reporting how some ‘faith’ based admissions policies discriminated against children from poorer and marginalised families. He had also been critical of Government plans to slim down the admissions code.
A statement from the Department for Education said: ‘Dr Craig’s contract is due to expire in April 2012 and he and the Secretary of State have agreed it makes sense for his successor to take over in October this year to give them time to get up to speed ahead of the new admissions process.’
As we reported in February, Chief Schools Adjudicator Dr Ian Craig informed the Education Select Committee in February that almost one-third (45 of the 151) of the cases that his office ruled on last year related to faith schools that were able to set their own admissions. The submission followed on from a report published by them in November 2010 that found that some faith schools’ admissions rules discriminate against poor and immigrant children
Dr Craig’s findings are also consonant with a body of academic evidence that shows how faith schools admissions processes allow them to select more academically children from more socially privileged backgrounds. Research carried out by Parliament in 2009 found that admissions procedures used by faith schools had a direct bearing on any higher attainment achieved by students attending these schools. Research by academics at the Institute of Education in 2009 found that selection by faith schools led to greater social sorting and no improvement in other schools.
Education Campaigns Officer Jenny Pennington commented: ‘The existence of an independent adjudicator able to freely report their concerns has been instrumental in bringing to light the repeated examples of back door selection by ‘faith’ schools. The Government have stated their commitment to ‘fair’ admissions practices however by ‘slimming down’ the admissions code as well as weakening the power of the schools adjudicator through the current Education Bill it is unclear how they will be able to achieve this meaningfully.
‘It is vital that Dr Craig’s replacement is able to raise any concerns that they have without fear of restriction.’