AIBU to think the Education Secretary interview with Gemma Collins was a mistake?

[PinkBobby]

I have just watched a clip on social media of the Education Secretary sitting down with Gemma Collins (of TOWIE fame) and cannot believe they thought that’s the conversation schools/parents/teachers/SEN children need to hear right. I have nothing against Gemma Collins and think she could probably give a few govt departments some useful, blunt feedback but this feels like a huge fail.

Interested to hear if anyone thinks this is a PR success or agree it totally misses the mark.

YABU - It was a great discussion and you’re being unfair.

YANBU - The chat totally misses the mark and highlights the divide between politicians and the real world.

Absolutely bat shit advice for putting the GC on this interview. I suspect as pp said they think it will appeal to chav parents and give hope that you can have a successful career without passing qualifications. Gemma doing well in I’m A Celebrity must’ve swung their decision to involve her too. I can’t stand the woman personally, I’ve seen her in the wild in a Romford bar frequented by Towie types.

Oh god it is getting worse. They’ve now put out a clip of what GC would do if she was education secretary for the day…

‘I’d do a whole morning shout-
out. Everyone tune into me, the GC. All I’m asking you to do is learn whilst you’re there. Now go to school hunnies, go to college, go to uni and have a fabulous day.”

FMl is this really what we’ve descended to. Gahhhhh. I think 95% of the population would have something more thoughtful to say.

I saw this. How is it congruous to say she has a g in maths and still couldn't give a toss that she doesn't know what pi is, but that kids must go into their educational setting and be fabulous!

What does be fabulous mean? Because the way she's storming about in a mockery of a school j uniform looks like be fabulous means go in and have a laugh and don't take your education seriously.

Phillipson stating that people who are struggling with this messaging are snobs with no sense of humour seems to also be of the opinion that while attendance in school isn't optional, getting your head down and doing your best is!

I think I'm finding it particularly difficult as having been to a comprehensive school not too far from Phillipson but I'm guessing that was a completely different environment to the one that got her to Oxford, my school really was a race to the bottom where bright kids used to have to get things wrong on purpose as a strategy for not being singled out.

As PPs have mentioned, it appears to be an attempt to reach certain groups re vocational options and similar. This speaks volumes re how they view people who struggle at school or want to pursue non-academic career options. The timing also speaks volumes about their understanding of SEND and the impact of their reforms. A huge group of people are extremely concerned about their children’s futures and they are making jokey social media clips. I’d love to know how many hours were spent organising/planning/filming this chat. Even if GC wasn’t paid, valuable DoE time was spent on this rather than all the other things teachers and parents are begging for help with.

I’ve just seen that an actual SEND teacher (Jamie Gilbert) also got some time with the Ed sec recently. Sadly, he only got to record his question for her as a video rather than them actually having a chat together. Why can’t we see a recorded chat between Philipson and a real teacher so we can hear the real issues being discussed. Not some scripted response that fails to deal with the actual issues.

My mum who was a teacher and all her teacher friends would have no idea who Gemma is, they might think she’s good to help kids study but that’s about it.

It must be a reverse. To demonstrate why we need a population that is better educated than Gemma collins.

I give up.

I'd like to see the video of the Education Secretary and the meeting with the headmistress of the Michaela school whose pupils achieve amazing exam results...if they haven't managed to close it down.

All I’m asking you to do is learn whilst you’re there.

I’m sure that intervention will make all the difference. Thanks Gemma!

The labour party really hate working class people don't they? The absolute misery that securing an education can cause, for both sen kids and bullied kids and they're taking the piss out of struggling people, parents and children.

I hope everyone involved in this shitshow gets the life they deserve.