I have always suspected that Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson was a dud since Starmer often goes out of his way to lavish praise on her because she came from a poor family in the North East.
There is no scientific link I’ve seen between poverty and good judgment. Each day she goes by in such an important job for the future of our children.
Her latest clanger is to reveal in an interview with a tame Guardian journalist that she is to allow teachers to work from home when either marking or lesson planning.
I guarantee, within this Parliament, most teachers will be taking a day a week off to WFH and threatening to strike if they don’t get it.
Phillipson, 41, says she is doing this to ease a recruitment crisis in teaching. You would have thought that with 13 weeks holiday a year (coinciding nicely with their own children) and with no weekend or night work there would be a queue around the block for such jobs.
But Phillipson knows she is playing to the Lefties in the teacher community. And there’s plenty of them.
Just listen to delegates at the annual National Education Union conference. Most of them would be happy in China.
Let’s be clear. If teachers start WFH (what next, bin men?) on a regular basis and only pop in when having a class, the whole school will break down very quickly.
Teachers hold the school together. They are in the corridors, they are at the school gates, they are there for pastoral work, they are there for parents.
Bridget PhillipsonPAIt’s not just about the class. They are literally part of the brickwork. There are other important signs that Phillipson is out of her depth.
As The Times points out Michael Gove’s school reforms were one of the few unqualified successes of the Tory years. He put academic knowledge back at the centre of education.
The effect? English schools rose up the OECD league tables, with early years literacy rates, at times, the best in the West.
The number of schools ranked as outstanding gradually climbed whereas in Scotland and Wales where the ‘’child-centered’’ model was pursued, attainment tumbled, dropping below the OECD average.
Parents in Scotland and Wales must look at their dim kids with despair. Phillipson appears to be driven by ideology rather than evidence.
She has just paused funding earmarked for new free schools whose independence from local authorities made them the engine of improved outcomes. That is shocking.
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She is thinking of restoring responsibilities to local authorities. They love WFH. Also, from next year, Ofsted is to operate a report card for all schools opening the way to water down academic achievement.
We need brighter kids to compete in the world not more bloody influencers. Finally, I really object to her failure to praise in the Commons the fantastic academic achievements at the Michaela Community School in North London simply because the Head teacher and founder worked for the Tories.
I presume Phillipson is scared to do so for fear of annoying her Lefty chums. Let me assure her of this. If our academic standards go down on her watch- and I predict it will – it will
a) Lead to her being fired
b) Those results will hang around her neck for the rest of her time in public life.
But more importantly it will damage the life chances of a generation of children. That will be unforgivable.