Profit is the key to success in ‘Swedish schools’

30 September 2009

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Anders Hultin, an architect of the Swedish government’s voucher system, says the Tories’ plan to emulate it will fail unless they encourage a new breed of education entrepreneurs

The huge demand for school choice is perhaps one of Britain’s greatest untapped resources. The Conservatives will find a great appetite for new schools — and huge inventiveness among desperate communities. But Mr Cameron has a choice. Does he want to roll out the supply of these new schools quickly, or slowly? That is to say, will he allow profit-making schools, or leave it to the groups who all too often regard waiting lists as a badge of honour?

Is he worried that schools making money will mark him out as right-wing? He shouldn’t be. Just a couple of weeks ago, Sweden’s Social Democratic party made a clear statement dropping its opposition to profit-making schools and saying that its sole concern is whether schools are performing well or badly. They could hardly do otherwise. After 17 years of this educational experiment in Sweden, it is clear that the for-profit chains have greatly helped social mobility. They have given low-income parents a choice of school that only the rich in England have. It would be odd to think that the Swedish left is more relaxed about profit-seeking schools than the British Conservative party.

Mr Cameron has spoken eloquently about how schools reform can change the balance of power between the government and the people. And so it can: but he will need to move quickly. He must make these tough political decisions in his first few weeks in power.

Teachers can be entrepreneurs, too. There is indeed a schools revolution waiting to come to Britain — but one that can only reach its potential if the Conservatives realise that ‘profit’ is not a dirty word.

Anders Hultin is a former adviser to the Swedish government, co-founder of the Kunskapsskolan chain of schools in Sweden and chief executive of GEMS UK.