| SPOTLIGHT |
Three publishing organisations have made a joint application to the courts to bring a judicial review claim against the Department for Education over its proposed operating model for its new arm's length body, Oak National Academy.
The British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA), the Publishers Association, and the Society of Authors announced the legal challenge last week (30 November), describing the plan for the academy as "an unprecedented and unevidenced intervention".
Oak National Academy began operating in April 2020 as a charity providing online resources to teachers during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, in March of this year, the Government announced plans for the organisation to become an independent public body.
Responding to the announcement at the time, BESA threatened to launch a judicial review over the now-realised plans, arguing that the proposal would impact businesses that offer educational resources and that it amounted to a public subsidy that breached UK and EU law.
As an independent public body, the organisation now creates 'curriculum maps' and provides free digital teaching resources.
Announcing the judicial review challenge last week, Dan Conway, CEO of the Publishers Association, said: "Unfortunately, we and our joint claimants felt we had no remaining course of action other than to challenge the Department for Education's plans via judicial review."
He added: "The Government's plans for Oak will be an unprecedented and unevidenced intervention that will cause irreparable damage to the education sector as we know it. The Government is in effect creating a one-size-fits-all state publisher that promotes a single curriculum, controlled by the Education Secretary of the day."
Conway argued that this would undo years of work by publishers who have invested expertise over many decades in creating "a rich range of world-leading resources for school children across the country".
He continued: "There is simply too much at stake to let these plans proceed unopposed. The potential impact on teacher autonomy, learner outcomes, and curriculum diversity and quality is too significant. That is why authors, publishers, educational suppliers, school groups, teachers' unions, and others have all voiced strong concern over these plans."
Caroline Wright, Director General of BESA, said: "Launching a legal challenge of the new curriculum body is the sector's option of last resort, we have tried to engage with the Department for Education over its creation of its new curriculum body for months, but they have refused any meaningful mitigations that would protect competition within the market."
The National Education Union is also participating in the claim as an "interested party".
The Department for Education has been approached for comment.
Adam Carey
