Let me first ask your opinion.
Imagine. On the table in front of you is a Button. Beside it is a Cheque, made out to you, for the sum of £1,000,000 sterling.
Now your opinion: you have two options and I invite you to select just one of the options.
Option A grants you a preference of the Button or the Cheque.
Option B grants you a choice of the Button or the Cheque.
Would I be correct in assuming that you would select Option B? That, in your opinion a “Choice” is to be preferred to a “Preference”? Would I also be correct if I presumed your agreement that “Choice” and “Preference” are entirely different, separate notions? Not to the Department of Education (DfE), they are not.
Consider “Free Schools in 2013”, the DfE’s guidance for those proposing to open a Special Free School in 2013: “Things to know before you start”.
Paragraph 1.1 asserts “… We want parents to have a choice of more good schools …”. Paragraph 1.2 expands “The Free Schools Programme is helping us realise this vision …. By introducing increased competition, innovation and parental choice, we aim to raise standards across the school system.”
You may be ahead of me, and guessing what is coming next.
Paragraph 1.3 is a little longer: “Special Free Schools are part of the Free Schools programme …. Parents of children with special educational needs (SEN) will have a choice of which school they want their child to attend.”
Actually, it does not say that. In italics is what those like you and I who understand the difference between “choice” and “preference” might have expected having read Paragraphs 1.1 and 1.2. What, however, Paragraph 1.3 does say is “Parents of children with special educational needs (SEN) can make representations about which school they want their child to attend.” In other words, parents can express a preference not a choice. Just in case you have any doubt as to who will really exercise choice, paragraph 1.3 concludes “For children with SEN, the introduction of special Free Schools will help to ensure …. that local authorities have more choice about which special provision is suitable for pupils.”
I invite you to consider how, as far as parental choice is concerned, this differs from the situation now? .
This is no an aberration. This conflation of meaning of the words “choice” and “preference” runs through the SEN Green Paper “Support and Aspiration”. Consider this sentence from the Foreword: “We want to give parents more control by …. ensuring more choice by allowing parents to name in their child’s plan, a preference for any state-funded school.” Control, choice, preference. Between the Button and the Cheque, do you want “Choice” or “Preference”? (Notice the word “Control”. Chapter 2 is headed “Giving Parents Control”).
Paragraphs 2.44-2.54 are entitled, “A Clear Choice of School”.
If this is heading where you and I now strongly suspect it is, “Choice” is anything but “Clear”. Sure enough, Paragraph 2.46 begins boldly and, one would otherwise have thought, "clearly" enough: “There should be a real choice for parents …. We believe that real choice for parents requires a diverse and dynamic school system … [with] … the autonomy and flexibility to respond effectively to parental choice; parents to be able to express a preference for a placement in any state-funded school ….”
You do not, I feel sure, need me to point out to you once more, the conflation of the words “choice” and “preference” into one muddled meaning.
What if the title, clearly and honestly had been “A Clear Preference of School”. What if the promise were that “There should be a real preference for parents ….”? What if "choice" were replaced in every instance by "preference". About as enticing as a button instead of a a million pounds.
Who writes this stuff?
