Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education, should resign

[noblegiraffe]

Let's judge him on his record. His two stated priorities:

1. Students smoothly get the exam results they deserve

2. Schools re-open in a way that is safe for your children

Target 1: Not met. The exams fiasco will go down in education history as the biggest shambles ever, including the time Y9 SATs paper were lost by the company paid to mark them.

Target 2: Not met. Latest data shows that 55% of state secondary schools had children isolating due to contact with a positive case at school on 22nd October. 39% of secondary children in Knowsley were out of school - an area with one of the highest deprivation rates in the country.

In addition:
Universities return - turns out having massive movement of young people around the country led to massive outbreaks of covid. To be fair, that was impossible to predict.

Free School Meals: Gavin tried to blame Rishi for not giving him any money. Rishi countered with the fact that Gav hadn't asked for any money. Gav himself voted to let children go hungry so clearly wasn't going to fight for it.

Laptops for the disadvantaged: In the best DfE tradition of dropping shit on headteacher's laps just as they break up for a holiday, the number of laptops allocated for disadvantaged kids was slashed just as it became a legal requirement for schools to provide remote education for isolating pupils. How can they fulfil that requirement without the resources, Gav?

Throughout this, Gavin has been basically invisible, except for a photoshoot with a whip.

YABU: Gav has met his targets and deserves a pay rise
YANBU: Gav should resign

Those HoDs still exist, though! They now insist on 'intervention' and endless 'interim assessments' and still say no one can fail the speaking unit. And have taken nearly all the creativity and joy out of teaching. That's how you get to be HoD. By a 'relentless focus' on a 'culture of improvement'.

@RedskyAtnight

Has there been any education secretaries in recent years that teachers have actually liked? And, if not liked (because managers are not there to be liked necessarily) actually respected?

I don't think it happens with any Sec of State. Certainly few, if any, accountants have liked any of the Chancellors over the last 20+ years. Trouble is that Sec of States are rarely (if ever) specialists by profession/qualification etc so they rely on their senior civil servant advisors, so change of Sec of State doesn't necessarily mean a change in the people advising or enacting.

I was a HOD prior to child!

Seriously yes you have to focus on raising results but that’s not really what I mean. The s & l is bollocks and I agree with that, but the exam component is fairer. It has to be.

Depends on what you mean by fairer.

No education system will be. But I think a system which relied on a students input not that of a teacher is ultimately a better one.

Clearly he's shit and not up to the job, but in the list of Conservative MPs who should be sacked I wouldn't put him at the top!

chronic underfunding - OK, but you know, not all problems have a financial solution

But the underfunding has led to bigger class sizes, teachers and support staff being made redundant, subjects being cut at GCSE and A-Level. That isn't more funding being wanted to solve problems, that's cuts in funding causing problems.

I think there are things I’d do differently but I don’t think I’d call it a ‘mess.’

The aim behind GCSE reforms was to raise standards, then they realised that this would mean more children failing. The pass grade was changed from a 5 to a 4 five weeks before the first cohort was due to sit their reformed GCSEs, meaning that the GCSE reforms achieved nothing. Have standards been raised? No. Grade boundaries have been lowered.
Re: A-levels. Losing the AS level has been massively damaging. It has led to sixth formers having a much narrower curriculum. It has meant that after a few weeks of sixth form they are locked in for two years onto a course that they may not do very well in that they previously could have dropped at the end of Y12. And of course grade boundaries are much lower in the new A-levels so again, no change to standards.

So what, exactly, was the point?

critical shortage of teachers - again, that’s subject dependent and area dependent.

I'm not sure there's anywhere in the country with an over abundance of maths, physics or computing teachers. But we know that pre-covid the government was becoming increasingly desperate with its teacher recruitment ads and incentives. What it entirely failed to do was address teacher retention and now there are serious concerns that there aren't enough experienced teachers to train the amount of trainees that will be needed to fill the gaps.

Let us not forget the CAGs shitshow. All he wanted to dot here was cover his won back. various minutes and documents have revealed since that eh knew lots about the problems before he said he did and that he just shouted at people and blamed them. he then disappeared form view, leaving others to take the fall (this also was planned before the event). He's a weasel.

The only thing that would worry me (if he was sacked) is that BJ the 🤡 would be told to reshuffle by Dom where's me glasses Cum.
Who knows which shambolic minister you could end up with at Education...🤷🏻‍♀️

@pussycatinboots

The only thing that would worry me (if he was sacked) is that BJ the 🤡 would be told to reshuffle by Dom where's me glasses Cum. Who knows which shambolic minister you could end up with at Education...🤷🏻‍♀️

That's the depressing thing. For him to have been appointed in the first place with his lack of experience other than being a school governor at some point. There must be so many other MPs who were more suitable but there's only a limited number for Boris to choose from within Dominic's clique.

Can we fuck him off as an MP altogether, he does nothing for his constituents either. There are no positives in him.

This does not surprise me mummy!