Thread by @MankamalSingh

Sikh Organisations/Gurdwaras and Sangat in general, are completely disconnected with all the “twists and turns” regarding Multi Academy Trust (MAT) structures and how it's clenched Sikh Faith school set up in the UK. (Thread 👇)

https://twitter.com/IlfordRecorder/status/1351273157752049665?s=19

So, philosophical foundation of these schools in UK was based on tenets of Sikhi. When presented to @educationgovuk, it was a school model encouraging citizenship through the Sarbat da Bhalla, equality, hard work etc. commonly communicated as central to the Sikh way of life.

It was with this aspiration and vision that thousands of Sikh parents signed up for, exciting concepts and visions for new Sikh schools. Some of us were heavily involved in that new wave of exhilaration and shared goals. I myself was a co-founder of a school in East London.

The UK’s first Sikh faith school was established as an independent school in 1993 in Hayes and joined the state-maintained sector in 1999.

The introduction of Tory free school academy initiative launched in 2010, opened up a massive opportunity for independent groups to form Academies Trusts, submit applications directly to the Department for Education and if successful receive funding for an entire school .

This initiative accounts for the majority of the current 13 Sikh faith and ethos schools established across the UK since 2010.

There was a time when the Local Authorities would receive the funding for the schools in their area, managed the schools and controlled the budgets. The growth in academisations, gave rise to funding being diverted to individual smaller Academies Trusts who now managed schools.

Implication all along had been academies would be more efficient, less money spent on bureaucracy of local government, while more would be funnelled directly into teaching/learning. Coupled with the Sikh faith aspect, mix sounded like win win opportunity for growing Sikh schools

Reality was dream goal of a learning haven, less costly, less bureaucratic system was effectively just an expensive illusion waiting to be exploited. Instead, we saw creation of new top-heavy bureaucracy, characterised by a lack of experience in education & fundamental flaws.

The academies saw the creation of a corporate top layer of executives with staggering amounts on salaries within multi-academy trusts – organisations which are responsible for far fewer schools than local authorities with no democratic oversight.

I am not saying that the multi-academy trusts is a flawed model in it’s entirety. But it certainly is a model that is being exploited.

For context:
4 form per year secondary school with an average of 30 pupils per class receives public funds of around £5 million/year. 2 form per year primary school receives around £2 million/year. All-through school incorporating above is looking at funds of £7 million/year.

A considerable amount of annual income, but then the schools need to fund their staff, overheads, resources etc. And of course, the top slice for the keeping of a top layer of executives, often in the region of 6%. (6% on £7 million is £0.4 million per year.

Multiply this by 3 to represent 3 schools, for arguments sake, you start seeing a top slice of £1.2 million being absorbed by a head office function.

So when you start seeing the funds in question, you can start to appreciate how the diversion from delivering the Sikh Education dream to the truth of managing a large lucrative multi-million corporate enterprise may begin.

MATs are set up in a way that the power of decision making effectively lies with Trustees (sometimes called Directors). Members are placed on top of Trustees. Head Teachers and school leaders are stripped of any real autonomy they would have had in a local authority run school.

The CEO and other Executive are the new characters introduced in the MAT set up who harness the real control on a daily basis.

Concept of Directors and Members comes from company law and, in a business context, it probably makes sense.

Returning to school scenario, a founder may well have proposed the new school, CEO may be on top of the food chain. But notion that these individuals “own” a publicly funded group of schools in same way that founders of business own a privately established company is problematic.

This is the bit our Sikh Orgs/Gurdwaras do not understand. Schools are run on public funds, given to provide education for children and not just to bolster personal profiles in the community.

Once we take a real hard look at the expectations we should have from a Sikh Faith school and take action to see the manifestation of those expectations then automatically we will see the Sikh Faith schools we all shared that common vision for.