London : Schools need to recruit governors from working-class and ethnic minority backgrounds to become more democratic and "cosmopolitan", a report says. Largely middle-class volunteers had helped to improve performances but had left some boards "significantly unrepresentative" of their communities. There were also not enough women involved, researchers argued. Schools across the UK had to create stronger community links to ensure continued improvement, they said.

'Experiment'

In the late 1908s, the Conservative government created more than 400,000 "volunteer citizens" to occupy boards of governors. This was the "largest democratic experiment in voluntary public participation", said the report by researchers from Warwick, Glasgow Caledonian, Queen's Belfast and Birmingham universities and the Centre for Public Scrutiny.

However, those recruited were "generally white, middle-aged, middle-class, middle-income, public/community service workers". Such people had the knowledge to make a "profound contribution to regenerating the schools", with their "access to privileged networks and resources". But this approach only went a certain way to improving schools if the bulk of the community was not involved.

'Incomplete'

In some local authorities this was recognised and greater efforts were under way to involve more people. Researchers looked at boards of governors in five UK local authorities: Upborough and Midshire in England, Smithstown in Northern Ireland, Rampton in Wales and Inverburn in Scotland.

Professor Stewart Ranson, from Warwick University's institute of education, said: "We are at a new stage of development. Schools need to connect with their communities." Some 67% of the governors questioned were concerned about problems recruiting more volunteers, while 45% had fears about keeping existing ones.

The creation of volunteer governors, the study said, had "been a considerable though not complete success". Links with communities, needed to bring long-lasting change, were "incomplete". Earlier this year, education ministers in England called for more employers to encourage staff to become governors. The report - The participation of volunteer citizens in school governance - is published in volume 57 (3) of Education Review.(BBC)