Schools around the country are facing enforced conversion to academy status – against the wishes of parents, staff and governors

On a sunny winter’s afternoon, Downhills primary school looks like an advert for the inclusive possibilities of inner-city, multi-ethnic education.

Children of different races are running around together in the playground; inside the walls are covered with colourful artwork. The head, Leslie Church, talks about one of the school’s strengths: giving each child in this deprived area of north London – just a few hundred yards from the starting point of August’s riots – access to free violin, cello or guitar lessons in year 4.

The school, which has been through difficulties in the last year despite the overwhelmingly happy exterior, might in other times be cheering itself with news in September from inspectors that it is improving.

Instead, this 463-pupil institution in Tottenham is now seemingly on the front line of a struggle for the future of England’s primary schools.

Downhills is facing being forced by Michael Gove, the education secretary, to become a privately sponsored academy, despite fierce opposition from parents, the governing body and staff.

Last Thursday, David Lammy, the local MP, who was a pupil here, accused Gove of an “undemocratic and aggressive” act, which threatened to erase 100 years of local democratic control at the school, founded in the late 19th century, at a stroke.

Lammy is now collecting signatures for a petition to present to the House of Commons against the plans, while the school is exploring its legal options.

Yet Downhills, which is in this position because the government says its English and maths test results are not good enough, is not alone.

Hundreds of primary schools seem to be facing the threat of mandatory conversion to academies under external sponsorship, with Downhills a high-profile test of the new and seemingly unfettered ability of the education secretary to enforce his vision of a new model of governance, even when all those closely connected to this school say they do not want it. Critics say Gove is simply forcing through an agenda of privatisation, in a trend with implications for many, if not all, of England’s schools.

Although Downhills draws in some middle-class families attracted to its inclusive, creative ethos, it also has a very challenging intake. Some 46% of its children are eligible for free school meals, while for 73%, their first language is not English. Downhills is also said to have a large population of Gypsy Roma children, who nationally have the lowest results of any ethnic group.

When Ofsted visited in January, 92% of parents returning questionnaires agreed with the statement “I am happy with my child’s experience at this school”.

Despite this, since that inspection Downhills has been on a “notice to improve” from the inspectorate because of its test results. These had one particularly bad year in 2009, when only 40% of pupils achieved the expected level in English and maths.

In September, however, when inspectors returned, they reported that Downhills was improving. Schools are usually given 12 to 18 months to turn themselves around under this Ofsted process.

But now the school faces a different future. Downhills is particularly vulnerable because Gove has powers, under an act he hastened through parliament last year, to force into academy status any school that is said by Ofsted to need “special measures” or that has a notice to improve.

Academies are schools set up under a private contract between Gove and a sponsor: usually either another school or a privately run, though currently non-profit-making, academy chain.

Gove’s officials and Haringey, the local authority, have been in discussions since July. Letters between the two show the Department for Education pushing for 10 of the borough’s primaries to convert to sponsored academies.

Downhills’ position became clear after a meeting two weeks ago between governors and two DfE representatives, including Jacky Griffin, a former council education director now working as a consultant. Education Guardian has heard a recording of the meeting.

Griffin told the group: “What I’d particularly like to focus on today is whether the course of action of becoming a sponsored academy is one that you would like to take with us … or whether we have to take back the message that that’s not what you want to do, and see what happens as a consequence of that.”

This was followed by a letter four days later from Lord Hill, schools minister, who said that Gove was “minded” to make an academy order – forcing academy status on Downhills – and to use powers granted to the government under Labour to appoint a new governing body.

He said the school had been “below the [KS2 results] floor standard” for five years, even though Downhills’ latest figures, published three days after the letter was sent, see it just above floor target – with 61% of children reaching expected levels in English and maths – and faring better than the national average with disadvantaged children.

But Hill asked the governors to write back by 13 January setting out how they would pass a resolution to become an academy, “with a named sponsor agreed with the DfE”. Griffin said the school was expected to become an academy in September.

The process was “brutal”, says one source at the school. Church himself says he was in tears on first learning of the school’s fate; governors were also said to be sobbing following Hill’s letter. Gove, it is said, has never visited the school.

Other schools are in Downhills’ position. In June it was revealed that 377 civil servants are working on promoting and implementing the academies policy, at a cost of £4.3m. Officials working for Gove and Liz Sidwell, the schools commissioner, have been touring England in recent weeks talking to local authorities and governing bodies about how schools with low Sats results must become academies by September.

Haringey is one of nine local authorities where these officials have been pushing hardest for more sponsored primary academies. The others are: Kent, Birmingham, Essex, Lancashire, Northamptonshire, Leeds, Bristol and Durham.

In Haringey alone, at least three other schools have been given an ultimatum: agree to sponsored academy status by mid-January, or we will force it on you.

The National Association of Head Teachers says that, nationally, at least 200 primaries with low results – lower than Downhills’ – are already being moved towards sponsored academy status. But the final number is likely to be much larger; the NAHT says most authorities are coming under pressure in some way, in both primary and secondary sectors.

One head of a secondary school that is in the process of converting to a sponsored academy says: “A senior local authority official came to see me a few months ago. He said: ‘Are you thinking of becoming an academy? Because you need to. The DfE are looking at your results. You will become a converter [sponsored] academy.’ We were given no option.”

Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, says: “This is a major political attack on state education. This is not schools opting for academy status; this is the government forcing schools away from local authority influence into the arms of external sponsors. It is hugely undemocratic.

“It is the forced privatisation of our schools. People have not woken up to what is happening to our education system.”

Back at Downhills, what most enrages parents queuing up to speak to Education Guardian is the lack of say anyone connected to the school seems to have in its future. Several say they chose the school because of that creative, happy ethos and how wrong it was that this could change, if a sponsor came in, with a different, possibly more narrowly results-focused, approach.

Elsa Dechaux, a research scientist whose son Oscar, four, is in reception at the school, says: “I visited all the schools around here, and this is the one I chose, because of the teachers’ enthusiasm. I want my children to be happy to learn. I don’t want them to be little robots, doing only English and maths.”

Sarah Williams, a musician with children aged eight and 10 at Downhills, says: “I only moved them here in September, specifically because I love it here; they don’t just teach to the test.

“I thought the Conservative party was supposed to give parents choices. I have made my democratic choice, and now it is being taken away from me.”

James Redwood, whose four-year-old son, Arthur, is in reception, says: “I’m a composer, and I visit a lot of schools. This is a fantastic, happy place. It is the end of state education if they can do what they are doing to a place like this.”

online school degrees

Yet many will see the short route to getting their business established first as the way to go. What are they missing? Education adds competitive advantages that they may not develop on their own.

Here’s an example of this point: Ms. Nengarivo Teveli was born in Tanzania and quickly developed a love of learning. Initially, she focused her attention on the exciting world of electronics and telecommunications engineering and earned degrees in those fields from Dar-Es-Salaam Technical College. She first qualified as a technician and later as an engineer from the college. Because of her excellent preparation, Tanzania’s Directorate of Civil Aviation was happy to employ her talents in providing navigational support for aircraft.

Navigational systems were increasingly operated by digital and computerized systems. Ms. Teveli took unpaid time off from work to learn computer technology through courses she paid for herself. This investment in gaining knowledge paid off in three years when she gained a position as a technical engineer with a local computer company. Within a year, she had tripled her salary and was learning new aspects of computing.

This computer-related training and experience qualified her to gain a position as an information technology assistant for World Vision Tanzania, the local chapter of the global development organization.

During this career progress Ms. Teveli became fascinated by the possibility of becoming a business entrepreneur. She launched ELLANS Tanzania Limited, a company that sold books and educational materials to primary and secondary school students. She had also tried a number of other entrepreneurial ventures including small scale vegetable gardening, poultry keeping, and owning a milling machine. These businesses failed to prosper because she mostly copied what others did locally and didn’t know how to plan and create a more substantial enterprise.

With a full-time job and two active sons, how could she hope to accomplish more? Once again, Ms. Teveli turned to education as her answer. She decided that an MBA degree could make a difference and sought out the various online universities to see which one would best fit her needs. She discovered Rushmore University and enrolled there. With the patient support of her husband while she studied, Ms. Teveli engaged in her distance learning courses in the evenings and on weekends.

With time at a premium, she was glad to find that online education allowed her flexibility in when she took her courses. She also found that the courses were tough and required her improve her writing.

But she had a dream, a dream that inspired her to take on this challenge and to persevere: She wanted to found a private school for high school students that would teach them about business by taking advantage of technology.

By the time she started her online studies, Ms. Teveli had already acquired 20 acres for this purpose and had begun improving the site with trees. Ultimately, she hoped to have 300 boarding students at the school she wanted to build.

Ms. Teveli used her MBA training to add skills that allowed her to understand the full extent of what an entrepreneur should be thinking about and working on. In several courses, Ms. Teveli wrote papers helping her flesh out the strategy for her school. By the time she graduated, she knew what needed to be done, and the school was soon operating on a shoestring basis while she continued to raise funds to finish building and staffing the school.

In the planning process, her concept for the school expanded. The school would start as a high school but would eventually expand into a private college as well for the graduates of its high school. Today, Lazeli Schools is multi-cultural, equal opportunity, private school for girls aged 14 and older. Later, the institution will be expanded to include boys.

Here is a statement of what Lazeli Schools aim to accomplish:

“We are committed to graduating well-rounded individuals, using an exceptional teaching approach on the national curriculum while ensuring our students are offered a rich extra-curricular program. We hope to strengthen the integration of information technology across the curriculum to place our students at the forefront of education. Indeed, we are committed to a safe school with a strong academic focus, providing a wide variety of challenging academic, artistic and athletic programs. Lazeli is also committed to providing not only a strong academic foundation but also a social forum which will help students to develop into mature, responsible, self confident youth ready to embrace any leadership role with poise.”

In the same way that education and a love of technology have transformed Ms. Teveli’s life, she now wants to do the same for young people in Tanzania. Public education is very limited, and there are few excellent private schools.

Having built some initial classrooms, Lazeli Schools’ planned expansion project is building a 100 student dormitory.

How did the online MBA degree help develop and turn her dream into a reality?

Ms. Teveli says:

“All management knowledge gained from this education has been very instrumental in the entire school establishment and the courage to move ahead. This means that the strategic thinking in all planning, staffing, control and leadership of the schools has been ensured throughout the start-up stage and it will still be instrumental in any move that we want to take.”

Ms. Teveli continues to work with World Vision Tanzania as a Design Monitoring and Evaluation person, a position that was offered to her just two months after the completion of her MBA studies. She has been able to bring many new perspectives to her work with that fine organization as well, especially when working on short- and long-term planning for development programs.

I was left wondering what Ms. Teveli will next decide to learn and how her new knowledge will help improve life for her family and those who want to build a better world in Tanzania.

With millions of entrepreneurs struggling with moderate results, I wonder how many new entrepreneurs would be better served to gain more business knowledge before trying to create their enterprises.

Why Electronics Engineering Technology?

All of today’s booming industrial sectors like telecommunications, medical equipment, control systems, automotive systems, navigational systems, and of course, the consumer appliances sector are bringing out everything from mobile phones to home theatres, and require expertise in Electronics Engineering more than anything else, which explains the demand for Electronics Engineering professionals.

However, to attempt the field through an Engineering Degree can be taxing to those students who are not interested in taking advanced level mathematics (calculus) courses that an Engineering Degree requires, or to endure its long 4-year time frame. For such students, Electronics Engineering Technology is a great option, with its stress on applied or hands-on Electronics Engineering rather than the mathematics-dense and research-oriented Electronics Engineering. The time frame also is much shorter, with an Electronics Engineering Technician requiring only a 2-year Associate Degree to enter the field.

The job opportunities too are tilted in favor of Electronics Engineering Technicians when compared with Electronics Engineers; there are 182,000 Electrical and Electronics Engineering Technicians working in USA, compared with only 143,000 Electronics Engineers. The only drawbacks – a lower level in the hierarchy and the lower starting salaries than Electronics Engineers – can be overcome in the long run, since interested Electronics Engineering Technicians can study further for a 4-year Bachelors Degree, thus qualifying for the senior position of Electronics Engineering Technologist, who enjoys a position and salary comparable to Electronics Engineers. Average salary for Electronics Engineering Senior Technicians / Technologists is US $46,000, very comparable to salaries for Electronics Engineers at US $52,000.

Why Electronics Engineering Technology Distance Learning?

It is estimated that job opportunities for Electronics Engineering Technicians and Technologists would grow at up to 17% every year, for nearly the next 10 years. The requirement of an Associate Degree for entering the field is a relatively recent phenomenon, and a significant percentage of working Electronics Engineering Technicians doesn’t have such a formal degree. The industry preference to degree holders is encouraging such working professionals to get an Associate Degree, and electronics engineering technology distance learning becomes the natural choice. Also, due to the boom in the sector, those already having an Associate Degree will go for a Bachelors Degree so that they can work as a Technologist. And, of course, the growth prospects in the sector are attracting working professionals from other fields to Electronics Engineering Technology. These three factors are driving the huge demand for electronics engineering technology distance learning courses.

Earlier, there were technological hindrances to deliver such a hands-on course through a distance or online model. However, with the development of state-of-the-art systems like National Instruments’ LabVIEW/ELVIS (Educational Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Suite), which can be used by remote students through a web browser, to virtually perform any electronics experiment, the demand for Electronics Engineering Distance Learning courses are at an all-time high.

Universities and Colleges Offering Electronics Engineering Technology Distance Learning

Electronics engineering technology distance learning courses offer both 2-year Associate and 4-year Bachelors Degrees. While Community Colleges and Institutes dominate the Associate Degree scene, Universities and Polytechnics are the primary sources for Bachelors Degrees. While searching for electronics engineering technology distance learning courses, it should be kept in mind that many US institutions still call the subject Electrical Engineering Technology.

Associate Degrees

Many Community Colleges and Institutes offer 2-year Associate Degrees for electronics engineering technology distance learning, but fully accredited courses are fewer. Whether for employment as an Electronics Engineering Technician or for further pursuance of a Bachelors Degree, it is always better to go for an accredited course. Cleveland Institute of Electronics (CIE), Penn Foster Career School, and Grantham University are three institutions that offer accredited Associate Degrees in the subject.

CIE’s Associate in Applied Science (A.A.S.) in Electronics Engineering Technology boasts of many unique features. Designed from the ground up as a distance learning course, rather than an online adaptation of a regular course, the CIE A.A.S. provides everything that an electronics engineering technology distance learning student might require, in a packaged fashion – complete with printed courseware for over 250 self-paced lessons, videos, and detailed instructions for the over 300 hands-on lab experiments. The only thing missing will be access to an Oscilloscope, and the CIE Bookstore even sells Oscilloscopes at discounted prices to its students! One-to-one instructor support is always available for students. Even the exams can be taken online. A really unique feature of the course is that interested and capable students can complete the course in half or even quarter time, and need only pay for that!

Penn Foster Career School offers an Associate in Specialized Technology (AST) in Electronics Technology, that can be completed fully online, with access to an internet-connected computer being the only requirement. Tuition includes well-written and amply-illustrated printed courseware, tools and equipment for experiments, and unlimited instructor support through website, phone, email, and regular mail. Online open-book exams and end-of-semester proctored exams are other features of this course. The course is self-paced, with longer than 2-year durations allowed.

Grantham University offers an Associate of Science (AS) in Electronics Engineering Technology through the distance mode. The tuition package for the course includes textbooks, lesson guides, grading of all tests, mailing of materials and graded tests from the college, consultation with instructors, and required software. Proctored exams are conducted at the end of every semester, which lend more credibility to this course. Consultation with instructors is available through phone, fax, email, and regular mail. To better facilitate the distance mode of the course, Grantham University even provides a discounted option for its students to buy computers from Dell. However, the main advantage of this course is that full credit transfer is possible to Grantham’s Bachelors Degree in the subject. Grantham is especially popular with military students.

Bachelors Degrees

When it comes to Bachelors Degrees for electronics engineering technology distance learning, even courses with accreditation from the Technology Accreditation Commission (TAC) of the Accreditation Board for Engineering Technology (ABET) are available.

Old Dominion University offers its Bachelor of Science (BS) in Engineering Technology, with Electrical Engineering Technology as Major, and Electrical Systems Technology as optional. The course name follows the earlier US convention of naming Electronics Engineering courses as Electrical Engineering courses. This B.S. indeed has significant stress on Electronics Engineering Technology. In-depth coverage of Electronics includes Linear Electronics, Digital Controls, Microprocessors, Communications, Control Systems etc. High-tech delivery methods like virtual laboratory, streaming video, and satellite broadcast for 1-way video and 2-way audio, are fully utilized. The course is accredited by TAC of ABET.

World College, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Cleveland Institute of Electronics (CIE), offers a Bachelor of Electronics Engineering Technology (BEET) through the distance mode. Features include over 300 lab experiments, online exams, and toll free phones and email for consultation with instructors. Subjects covered include Electronics, Computer Technology, Telecommunications, Electrical Power, and Control Systems. Access to a computer and an oscilloscope are necessary.

Grantham University (described above, under Associate Degrees) also offers a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Electronics Engineering Technology.

The only current limiting factor for electronics engineering technology distance learning seems to be the high costs for implementing virtual labs that can be simultaneously accessed by a large number of students, and once this is solved by better and economical hardware and software, electronics engineering technology distance learning will be provided by more and more Universities, Colleges, and Polytechnic Institutes.

Any lawyer must go through years of schooling and finally pass the bar exam to become a licensed attorney. To get into any law school, a student interested in becoming an attorney must have already received an undergraduate, or Bachelors degree, from an accredited university. Today, more and more students are obtaining an online Bachelor degree before moving onto law school.

The Internet is a huge resource for communication as well as education. In recent years, Internet education has become a popular way for many people to increase their education level and obtain a variety of degrees. E-learning is very appealing because it is so convenient and often less expensive than a traditional college education. The basics of distance education have been made virtual through online education.

Though elearning appears to be so convenient, there is risk involved if the student does not properly research the institute. If a student wishes to go on to law school and become a successful attorney, it is essential that the online degree program be a valid one. One of the greatest dangers of receiving an education online is that the so-called university could be a diploma mill instead. A diploma mill gives out diplomas that are virtually useless in exchange for cash.

In order to take advantage of an online college degree the student should always receive his or her online education from an accredited university. Many accredited colleges and universities such as Duke and Stanford are now offering online degree programs that students may use to receive a Bachelors degree. In turn, these degrees can help these students get into a law school.

To ensure that the online degree program is a valid and legitimate one, students should research the institute more carefully than just reading its website. For example, students may check the accreditation of any online degree program through the US Department of Education. Students may also check the legitimacy of an Internet University through the Council for Higher Education Accreditations website. A third way students can check the validity of such a program is to write to the Diploma Mill Police. The Diploma Mill Police authenticates Internet institutes of education.

This is the way people study in remote Australian countrysides and in USA as well. By earning a law degree online you can appear for the state bar exam of California and if you pass the exam, you can practice as legal attorney or family attorneys or whatever stream you like. After practicing for some years, it is possible to get a waiver into the other states. And then you can hope to enter the state bar associations of those other states.

To become online family attorneys, you first have to find attorney schools online. There are 2 reputed and certified schools that offer online law programs – the International Pacific School of Law which is affiliated to the State Bar of California and which offers a 4 year course and the Concord Law School under Kaplan University’s ownership and administration.

If you can complete the course offered by these law schools, it will enable you to appear for the bar exam conducted by the state of California. You have to receive from these online law schools a Juris Doctor degree.

After applying to the California state bar to appear for the exam, you have got to register yourself with the California state bar. Here you have to take the help of the online office of admissions. Your next job is to pass the law students’ examination of 1st year. The syllabi include torts, criminal law and basic contracts.

After this you need to pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination and obtain a positive moral character determination.

The California bar exam is a 3 day test held twice a year in February and July. You have to appear for this exam and pass it as well. On passing this exam, you earn the eligibility for practicing law in the state of California.

Warnings and tips for becoming family attorneys and lawyers bankruptcy online

Online law degrees are recognized by the California state bar only and only this state deems it adequate for appearing for the state bar.

Therefore, it is necessary to enroll in an online course for obtaining a law degree that is compatible with and which will allow you to appear for the California state bar.

Counselors are much in demand today because of their knowledge of diverse domains and convincing and suggesting skills. This can be achieved through online counseling degree which is provided by many reputed players online. This is a new kind of course and is expected to grab greater prospects in future.

Online counseling degree gives you knowledge of various domains and disciplines. It is all the more important as a counselor is required to suggest multiple options to the client and this requires knowledge of everything under the sun. If he is not aware of the latest developments and emerging courses, he cannot become an effective counselor.

This degree extracts out many hidden talents in you. Your overall personality is groomed up with more convincing and commanding personality. You become the followed celebrity and people act on your advice. This boosts up your morale in going a step further and being a career related to education, it never ends with age or time. The more knowledge you gain the more expert you become.

Thus, if you want to do something unique in life you should go for online counseling degree which gives you instant results. You do not have to run early morning to attend classes. Now do not wait and make a head-start today.

You can do online learning programs with the aid of a computer and internet connection without wasting your time to attend campus based college classroom. Forensic accountant is a profession many establishments, institutions, military units or groups are looking forward to work with. You can work with government agencies, departments, banks, law enforcement agencies, insurance firms, manufacturing industries, marketing and audit firms.

Enough money can be earned with your online accounting degree. You can research to study with top colleges or universities across the globe because of the general acceptability of the credentials from top institutions. Online accounting undergraduate degree Canada, Oxford University, Cambridge University, Columbia University online accounting degree, University of California are some of top universities that offer quality online education.

There are programs like certificates in computer and digital forensics, client services, economic crime investigation, office systems, economic crime management, legal studies, safety engineering, paralegal studies, crime scene technology, fraud management, homeland security, technical management of criminal justice, bachelor degree, associate degree, masters degree and doctorate degree in diverse fields.

In conclusion, you can do online accounting degree from your home or at work. Make sure you research to get the accreditation status of the college or university before you register for online degree accounting.

The fantastic thing about this program is that you can consummate your studies in a very short period of say a year or two. What’s more, you also get what you are yearning for with ease. This means you will not be under pressure to get your online masters degree program done with. Because everything will be dictated by you and it is affordable. More so, if you can contrast this with what is available with normal universities, you will have no misgiving about the dissimilarities they share.

You also know quite well that except for online masters degree program you will invest longer time on the program. This will also include forcing to stay under some distressing or limiting campus conditions or regulations. If you are among those people that wish to advance their careers after earning their first degree, then online masters degree program will just do for you.

The truth is that with this program you can realize more and even accelerate your position in life with the certification you earn with much ease than you can ever imagine. If there is any advantage that comes with deciding for web based training, then it is the flexibility and easiness it allows everyone to turn expert in no time.

There is no point to bother, particularly if you don’t have enough time to work and go for lessons. This is because online masters degree program by design is devoted to people like you that are too busy to cope with schooling and working. With this you don’t have to be sidelined any more. I know you are not unaware of this fact, but for the sake of emphases I would permit to say ones more that you profit highly from this educational option at your disposal. So hurry, decide for yourself and you will be glad you did.