‘Pinocchio’ attack on Gavin Williamson

EDUCATION: A union chief has launched an attack on Gavin Williamson over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Robin Bevan, president of the National Education Union, likened the Education Secretary to Pinocchio, describing him as “wooden headed, limp and spineless”. And Mr Bevan, accused the Minister of repeating the “lie” that exams were the best form of assessment.

A UNION chief has launched a stinging attack on Gavin Williamson over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Robin Bevan, president of the National Education Union, likened the Scarborough-born Education Secretary to Pinocchio, describing him as “wooden headed, limp and spineless”.

And Mr Bevan, head of Southend High School for Boys in Essex, accused the Minister of repeating the “lie” that exams were the best form of assessment.

In a speech to its virtual annual conference, the president of the UK’s largest teaching union called for a rethink of assessments.

Addressing Mr Williamson’s political decisions over the past year, Mr Bevan said: “Throughout recent months we have seen the Secretary of State is indeed wooden headed, is indeed a puppet, is limp and spineless.”

He criticised the Education Secretary for threatening to take legal action against Greenwich Council if it failed to keep its schools open to all pupils until the end of term in December, despite a rise in Covid cases across the capital.

Mr Bevan also condemned Mr Williamson for telling parents in January that they could report schools to Ofsted if they were unhappy with their child’s remotelearning provision just days after schools were told they had to close.

Mr Bevan added: “Pinocchio of course also has that characteristic of the nose that grows with every lie that is told and there is one lie that really must be challenged, repeated over and over again by our Secretary of State.

“The lie that exams are the best and fairest way for young people to show what they know and can do.

“And here, I’m not talking about his incessant and unrelenting desire to see exams take place this year.

“I’m talking generally. It takes a particular level of ignorance to make that statement.” Teachers in England will decide pupils’ GCSE and Alevel grades this summer after exams were cancelled for the second year in a row amid the pandemic.

The changes to assessment have triggered calls across the sector for GCSEs to be reformed post-Covid.

But last month Mr Williamson told heads that the Government was going to keep GCSEs, adding that the exams would be here “for an awful lot longer”.

Addressing the conference yesterday, Mr Bevan warned that not everything was best assessed in an examination under timed conditions and he argued that there were also “issues of reliability”.

He said: “High-quality assessment doesn’t depend on performance on the day, doesn’t depend on the marker you’re assigned to, doesn’t depend on the selection of questions that just happen to appear on the paper. High-quality assessment would have the same outcome with the same competence of the individual being assessed.

“It’s time to re-think assessment. It’s time to put that lie in the bin.

“Exams are not the best, exclusive, fairest way for young people to show what they know and can do.”

Meanwhile, the union said nearly four in five teachers had seen mental-health issues among pupils increase over the past year.

More than three in five believe the Government has placed low priority on the good mental health of young people in educational settings, according to a poll.

Exams are not the best way for young people to show what they know.

Robin Bevan, president of the National Education Union.