ON MY MIND
SO children and young people returned to school in England following the UK Government’s Dad’s Army approach to education and Covid.
Apparently, the Education Secretary is known affectionately by some as Private Pike. Pike’s naivety often elicited a “stupid boy” from Captain Mainwaring as often does Gavin Williamson’s behaviour from the press.
Master of the “er… um” approach to interview technique, he has presided over an examination regime which used a disastrous algorithm last year and which produced embarrassing grade inflation this year.
He follows in the footsteps of some seriously inept Education Secretaries, but tops must be Robert Lowe. In office under Gladstone, Lowe introduced in schools a system of payment by results, thereby cementing his reputation as generally disreputable.
Ten years earlier, in Hard Times, Charles Dickens had lampooned a similar consequence of Joseph Lancaster’s monitorial system where a school board superintendent berates a newly trained teacher: “Now, what I want is facts . . . Facts alone are wanted in life”. Lowe’s glaring error was to assume that all you need is serious teaching but he forgot the importance of social and economic circumstances. This is still the warped thinking of the Westminster Government which loves to gloat about the so-called ‘inferior’ standards in Wales to those of England. They also conveniently choose to ignore the fact that standards are the same in both countries among younger children.
So now Welsh Education Minister Jeremy Miles is charged with keeping schools safe and productive. He has made a good start with the ozone disinfecting machines and the carbon dioxide monitors; he has promised that next year’s A-level and GCSE students will not be disadvantaged. He must now make progress with the implementation of the new curriculum for Wales.
With a resilient and dedicated body of teachers and a new progressive curriculum the future looks bright. Unless, of course, he was born anywhere near Walmington on Sea and his mother did not like him being out at night, fearing he might catch cold.
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