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Cllr Chris Philp
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Give schools the power to pick pupils, says Tory
Polls candidate urges introduction of city academy-style selection
THE new Conservative candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn wants Camden’s schools to pick and choose their pupils.
Councillor Chris Philp, who will fight the new constituency at the next general election, said it was time for schools to be given more freedom.
He was the runaway winner at a US primary-style selection meeting last month which saw voters – not just Conservative loyalists – pick him to fight the seat.
During his on-stage interview, he focused on education and told the audience: “I want to see the freedoms given to city academies in Camden. Schools should be given more freedoms, freedom over selection, freedom to hire and fire staff, freedom to control their own affairs.”
His stance puts him in direct conflict with the new Camden branch of the Campaign for State Education, formed to battle against any move towards the city academy model of privately-sponsored schools in the borough.
Cllr Philp said afterwards: “I think all schools should be given the freedom to handle their own affairs, including admissions. If we look at places like New Zealand and some places in the United States you find that schools have academic structure and others that have more vocational courses. The government have moved in this direction but they have been half-hearted.”
He said that low-achieving children would still find a place at school if selection was introduced in Camden and that no pupil would be left with nowhere to go.
Cllr Philp, a business entrepreneur who went to a state school in south London and later studied at Oxford University, said: “If there is a position like that – and I don’t think there will be – then the government or the local education authority would step in, and have a duty to find a place for those children. I think that would be highly unlikely because schools would want different kinds of pupils.”
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