Expel the Tories to give our kids a fighting chance
“SERIOUSLY!”. That was the blunt one-word response from a Tory MP at the news that her own party, amid Tuesday’s resignation drama, had yet another new Education Secretary.
Conservative Lucy Allan was as disappointed as the rest of us with the Government’s appointment of Michelle Donelan as its seventh education chief since they came to power in 2010.
By the time you read this we may now be wondering who will be the eighth if Boris Johnson does the decent thing for once and resigns.
As a parent with two children at school, I find the churn of education secretaries deeply disturbing, and I think it shows clear contempt for one of the most important areas in society – children and their future.
If a school or university had as many heads or leaders in the same amount of time we would think there was something seriously wrong with it. And the same goes for the education department.
The fact it’s a revolving door shows how little regard the Government has for it. And why should they care? We know the Cabinet – well until this week anyway – was made up of millionaire politicians. Most of them wouldn’t have had to worry about school catch-up programmes after the pandemic, their privately schooled precious darlings wouldn’t have missed a beat. And the Government’s solution to the crisis in education is simply to reopen the debate about launching new grammar schools, a policy designed to help a chosen few.
The handling of schools during the pandemic was atrocious. It was left to Marcus Rashford to figure out a way of underprivileged children getting their school dinners.
The most recent SATs tests (the tests in the final year of primary school) showed a marked dip. Meanwhile, children in private schools, whose exams were marked by teachers, did better than ever before, giving them an unfair advantage when it comes to applying to oversubscribed universities.
The Government committed to spending £4.3billion on education in response to the pandemic over two years. This included £550million to be spent on tutoring. But I’ve heard precious little about where the money has gone.
Education needs to be led by serious big hitters who are passionate about the subject and our young people, something I don’t think I’ve seen in a long time.
People come and go. Gavin Williamson, widely regarded as one of the worst education secretaries in living memory, was rewarded for his failure by being given a knighthood. Nadhim Zahawi swanned off to the Treasury as Chancellor. When will the Government realise our children are the future and start putting their needs first?
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The churn of education secretaries shows clear contempt