1st January 2018 1:00
By Blue Tutors
The growing suggestions that the current Education Secretary, Justine Greening, have spurred a flurry of interest in the very nature of the cabinet position. Numerous educational and news journals have taken the rumours as opportunity to reflect upon the - according to consensus - unproductive attitude of most education secretaries. As William Stewart of Tes (the Times Educational Supplement) says, these rumours ‘illustrate a wider problem about the way governments of all colours treat education’.
Most journalists are coming together to agree that ‘those who run our country value short-term, politically advantageous conflict in education over an ability to build consensus for the long haul.’
Greening herself appears to have been an anomaly, if a somewhat uncomfortable one. She is said to have ‘sided too strongly with the trade unions instead of embracing Tory reforms.’ She is also widely believed to have been skeptical of May’s pro-Grammar school initiatives, despite publicly supporting her Prime Minister.
Jon Andrews, spokesperson for the Education Policy Institute on the matter, illuminates why this might have been a ray of something more rare in an education secretary - based on “much stronger evidential basis for policy” (from Bousted, below) than the apparent need to ‘stir up conflict with teachers an education secretary – or a prime minister – can quickly generate headlines, and headlines mean it looks like something is being done.’ He told the BBC that when 70% of successful students gain grammar school places, the negative effects on results increase:
"Our research shows that as you increase the number of grammar school places in an area, the penalties on those who miss out on getting into grammar school increase.”
But Neil Carmichael, a former chair of the Commons Education Select Committee, went on to dismiss concerns that Ms Greening she was too close to the unions, saying:
“I think education is one of those areas where you need to reach out and I think Justine has done that. To be effective it is not necessary to be unpopular.”
One of the general secretaries of the NEU teaching union, Mary Bousted, also said these notions were “just nonsense”, and is quoted in Tes as saying that ‘Ms Greening was “doing an effective and competent job within the restraints of Conservative education policy”. The £1.3 billion additional funding for schools also stands proud here, although it is considered ‘not enough’, it is still a positive improvement - and one that consistency would surely boost.
“Just when positive things are starting to happen, to have her moved and the Department for Education in turmoil again would not be good for education.”
So, are we fated to another shakeup of the educational system for the benefit of the party in power, or might we be starting to balance the vital but delicate spinning-plates that make up the educational system?
Quotes taken from tes.com, BBC News and The Guardian, ‘Theresa May considers Brexit role for Boris Johnson in cabinet reshuffle’, by political editor Anushka Asthana, Mon 1 Jan 2018.