Scrap education quangos and save £600m
Author: The Guardian - Aug 13, 2009
More than £600m a year could be shaved off England's schools budget by scrapping some of the biggest education quangos, key advisers will tell the Tories today.
The Centre for Policy Studies, a right-of-centre thinktank that influences Tory policy, has calculated that a Conservative government could save £633m if it abolished at least eight quangos, including the exams watchdog and regulator.
The cost of quangos to taxpayers has risen to £1.18bn a year, the thinktank says in its report. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority receives £157m in public funds a year – almost triple the amount it got 10 years ago – and it now has 581 employees, a rise of 122.
The watchdog, which also develops the national curriculum, is being replaced by two other quangos, which include the exams regulator, Ofqual. But Ofqual should be replaced by an advisory board of university professors and headteachers rather than civil servants, to help maintain standards in vocational and academic qualifications, the thinktank says.
The report also suggests schools should be free to develop their own curriculum.
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