It's time Nicky Morgan started listening to the experts in education
Alienating and attacking one of the country’s most respected professions rarely translates into political popularity – as Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has focused
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Your support makes all the difference.That Education Secretary Nicky Morgan intends to press ahead with the appointment of Amanda Spielman as the new Chief Inspector of Schools, despite the opposition of MPs and teachers, is disappointing and a reflection of her apparent inability to listen to criticism and concern.
After a long interview with Ms Spielman, who is the current head of the exams regulator Ofqual, the Education Select Committee disagreed that she was suitable for the role earlier this week. Not only did she lack any experience of teaching, they pointed out, but she lacked both passion for the role and a clear understanding of its key aspects (child protection and early years education, in particular). The committee’s conclusion, which noted its members were “deeply concerned” about Ms Spielman’s claim that the buck doesn’t stop with Ofsted on child protection, seems not to have swayed Ms Morgan.
In the same week, teachers walked out on strike across England over austerity cuts, curriculum reform and pay; Ms Morgan responded by telling parents that the “old establishment” was harming children’s learning.
Despite making a wise U-turn on one of the Government’s more unpopular educational policies – forcing all schools to become academies by 2022 – Ms Morgan has failed to convince many that she is part of the “listening Government” she described in a speech earlier this year. To dismiss considered expert opinion and move forward with a decision on the appointment of a central figure in education regardless, as she has done in the case of Ms Spielman, seems to show a lack of foresight. Parents are as unlikely to rally around her as teachers after SATs results released this week showed that just 53 per cent of Year 6 pupils met the new “expected standard” for reading, writing and maths this year.
Like almost every aspect of education reform announced in recent years, this has done little more than confuse and demoralise an already depleted profession.
Alienating and attacking one of the country’s most respected professions rarely translates into political popularity, as Ms Morgan’s colleague Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, has already learned over his battle with junior doctors. Appointing a person with no direct experience of teaching as the head of Ofsted could be political suicide for Ms Morgan.
If the Education Secretary wants to emerge from her current role in Government with her credibility intact, she needs to start listening again – even if it leads to another climbdown.
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