Is Nadhim Zahawi as incompetent as Sir Gavin Williamson?

[noblegiraffe]

Sighs of relief were heaved as Gavin Williamson was finally shuffled out of Education (but not into deserved oblivion, instead being knighted for 'services to not publishing Boris kompromat').

The chaos of the DfE, the unclear and nonsensical guidelines, the shambles around school closures, the leaving it till the very last minute to tell schools what they should be doing, the exams disaster were blamed on his useless leadership.

So when Nadhim Zahawi was appointed, people looked forward to a more 'evidence-based' approach. He'd been seen as doing a good job as vaccines minister, so surely a safe pair of hands.

So have things got better?

No. Things have got to the point where the generally exceptionally reasonable headteachers' unions, the ASCL and NAHT have been forced to publish an open letter to Nadhim Zahawi pointing out that there's a crisis in schools and that he is doing nothing to fix it and indeed possibly making things worse. They have written previous letters to Zahawi and he has not even bothered to respond.

What are the issues? Covid chaos in schools, pupils without teachers, year groups being sent home. Nonsensical guidelines being sent to schools at the very last minute. Concerns about being able to effectively run imminent exams given huge levels of staff and pupil absence - and the horror that the govt plan to go ahead with publishing league tables with the results of these.

Basically, it sounds like exactly the same mess we had under Gav. The letter says that headteachers and school leaders are at the end of their tether and are stepping down due to lack of support.

Was it not a Gav issue, but simply Tory policy to create chaos in education and refuse to talk to school leaders about how to fix it?

The letter is worth a read:

www.ascl.org.uk/ASCL/media/ASCL/News/Press%20releases/Joint-letter-to-Secretary-of-State-Lack-of-support-for-pupils-and-staff-4-April-2022.pdf

Don't know about either of them, but all those ferries sitting in port with no operating crew sounds a tailor-made wet dream for Chris Grayling!

Depressingly he seems as ineffective as his predecessor.

Yes. Gav was famous for his incompetence, how hard could it have been to be an improvement?

That said, I was listening to the radio this morning and someone in charge of social care was complaining that the government weren't listening to what they were saying and the system was collapsing, then someone came on from farming and said exactly the same thing about agriculture.

It's a government problem.

@noblegiraffe

Depressingly he seems as ineffective as his predecessor.

Yes. Gav was famous for his incompetence, how hard could it have been to be an improvement?

That said, I was listening to the radio this morning and someone in charge of social care was complaining that the government weren't listening to what they were saying and the system was collapsing, then someone came on from farming and said exactly the same thing about agriculture.

It's a government problem.

The bizarre thing is we are all now paying additional tax that for some reason is called a social care levy, which isn't going to fund social care, but instead is going to the NHS which would not need the funding if social care was funded properly.

The bizarre thing is we are all now paying additional tax that for some reason is called a social care levy, which isn't going to fund social care, but instead is going to the NHS which would not need the funding if social care was funded properly

There’s also an adult social care levy on council tax!

There is no back up plan any more.
Even if my year 11 son has Covid I'm sending in to do his exams. I just won't bother testing him. If there are no contingency plans for pupils ill with covid over the exam period that really is shit.

I sometimes think that even just an acknowledgement from whichever incompetent is in charge that schools are struggling would go a long way. The line always seems to be, 'Sort your shit out, crappy schools by making changes I have made up!' rather than 'I realise it's a real struggle in schools. What can I do to help, in my position of Person In Charge of Schools? After all, we all want the same thing - students to do well '

Fat chance.

I have two in year 11 at different schools, who also had weeks and weeks of repeated Covid absences and disruption.

How they/we will get through five weeks of exams without disruption at either school, worries me greatly. It's just not fair on them or the teachers.

I sometimes think that even just an acknowledgement from whichever incompetent is in charge that schools are struggling would go a long way.

This.

@DrDreReturns

There is no back up plan any more. Even if my year 11 son has Covid I'm sending in to do his exams. I just won't bother testing him. If there are no contingency plans for pupils ill with covid over the exam period that really is shit.

This is why invigilators (who are often retired people) may well turn down work over the exam season this year. Public exams are highly regulated and can’t run without suitable invigilators, so you’re doing your son and his fellow exam candidates no favours by expressing this intention.

Has he actually done anything since his appointment?

I believe he ensured his wife's departmental parking permit was transferred to his new department so she can continue to use ministerial parking for shopping in Knightsbridge.

This is the MP who claimed expenses from the taxpayer to heat his horses' stables.

It's just as shit in primary schools.
Huge amount of teachers, support staff, 1:1, dinner staff off. The staff in school covering all duties. The head teacher covering for a 1:1 while she quickly eats lunch, Year 6 teachers doing FS playground duty and no one ever having ppa or a break.

Year 2 running on skeleton staff trying to gather evidence for sats when the Year 2 children haven't had a complete year in school. Lots of children off so trying to fill the gaps they have in learning when they return and also gather evidence for sats while teaching everyone else and also doing all the extras mentioned earlier.

From the outside it appears normal. On the inside it's far from.

@DrDreReturns

There is no back up plan any more. Even if my year 11 son has Covid I'm sending in to do his exams. I just won't bother testing him. If there are no contingency plans for pupils ill with covid over the exam period that really is shit.

I don't blame you if there's no back up plan.

However, this is going to exam chaos, because people know that's what will happen & schools are going to massively struggle to get invigilators.

A great many invigilators are older/CEV & are not going to volunteer to be in that pot of covid soup. Myself included.

I think all of the 'life back to normal' people should volunteer for at least a couple of days & if that means finding childcare/taking time off work, so be it.

That's without going into how ready the kids are fir the exams...

If my son misses a key exam (e.g. Maths) because of Covid what are the consequences for him? He has to get maths to get on his course next year. Will he have to resit it alongside his course next year or have a year in limbo?

He should only miss one paper as they are spread out so his grade would be given on the basis of his performance in the other papers. I think he has to sit at least one paper to get a grade.

If he misses all the maths papers he’d have to sit it in November.

@noblegiraffe thanks

@C8H10N4O2

Has he actually done anything since his appointment?

I believe he ensured his wife's departmental parking permit was transferred to his new department so she can continue to use ministerial parking for shopping in Knightsbridge.

This is the MP who claimed expenses from the taxpayer to heat his horses' stables.

Well if he is sufficiently successful to be able to afford to own stables than I think it is perfectly reasonable that we doff our caps and pay for the horses heating.

"There is an increased risk of exam malpractice this summer owing to a "dire" shortage of invigilators for GCSEs and A levels, the government is being warned.

The shortage also means that schools face paying out for supply staff, while some are training all teachers in the event that they will need them in the summer, it is understood.

More than nine out of 10 exams officers are concerned about having an insufficient number of invigilators for this summer's exams, a survey of 7,000 schools and colleges by the National Association of Examinations Officers (NAEO) shows.

The NAEO warns that individuals are having to be employed who are "not ideally suited to the role", which it says raises the risk of malpractice."

Awesome. www.tes.com/magazine/news/secondary/gcses-2022-crisis-fears-over-invigilator-shortage

I'm a Headteacher, and last week we had a quarter of the children in school infected and numerous staff, including me. This week my caretaker and two cleaners are infected so I came back from Covid to clean, open and lock up and also help out at lunchtime as we are short of midday supervisors. We tried seven different supply agencies to cover staff off sick and nobody was available so I have also taught all week.
Over half the Year 6 class were infected and they have got SATs after 9 days back after Easter. No allowances made for the last two years and if children are off sick they cannot retake their SATs. My teachers are so demoralised as they're trying to help the children do their best whilst still enjoying school life.

We are all under so much pressure and many teachers are leaving the profession. I have six Headteacher colleagues locally who have decided to retire early or leave completely this summer. And the government couldn't care less.

Invigilators are often paid NMW and the job carries a fair amount of responsibility. It’s most often done by retired people with a sense of social responsibility. Whether that includes a willingness to risk Covid (especially with boosters on the wane) remains to be seen.

It sounds like invigilators are the same sort of pool of people that the government was appealing to with its call for retired teachers to come and do supply teaching to keep schools open while all the other teachers were off with covid.

And we know that call was a complete failure. If they didn't want to come into schools to teach, I guess hoping that they'd come into schools to spend hours in exam halls with hundreds of unmasked and covidy kids for buttons is a bit much.

@borntobequiet

Invigilators are often paid NMW and the job carries a fair amount of responsibility. It’s most often done by retired people with a sense of social responsibility. Whether that includes a willingness to risk Covid (especially with boosters on the wane) remains to be seen.

This just goes to show that pensions are paying out too much and so Rishi should cut those as well.