The truth is out. Nicky Morgan, who became Secretary of
State for Education only as a result of a Cameron/Gove spat, is a sheep in
sheep’s clothing. Don’t take my word for it. Anthony Seldon, a Gove acolyte was
scathing about her in The Times, claiming she knew nothing about schools and
was quite disinterested in the portfolio, unlikely to make any mark and be gone
after the election. And that’s from a man who is the progenitor of her
ridiculous ‘Character Education’ initiative. Who needs enemies….
Sure, she didn’t ask for the job, isn’t really interested in
the job but why pass over Liz Truss, who at least has some experience? Morgan has,
by default, been given the image of the cleaner who came in after Gove to clean
up the gallons of blood let on the floor and calm everyone down after he tried
to dismantle the education system and replace it with rapacious Academy chains
and a diet of Latin. Nevertheless, Ministers need to make their mark and her
mark is notably absent. Her first conference speech was a hollow affair. Education policies, especially the pupil premium linked to school meals but also curriculum reforms and free school funding is a shambles. Her poor grasp of maths has let to the 'bell-curve' ridicule. She continues to underperform looking more and more like a rabbit stuck in the headlights. She’s a
name, a cipher, not a leader.
Minister for straight
women
Not a great pedigree, I’d say for someone with the Women and
Equalities portfolio but, astonishingly, she voted against same-sex marriage. Then,
oh what a surprise, she had a Damascene conversion. This showed more than a
touch of duplicity. It showed a career politician who puts progress above
principles. Don’t be fooled, this is a politician on the make. Beneath the dull
exterior lies an old-fashioned, Christian moralist.
Poor at maths
The hapless Morgan has form on poor maths. She got into trouble for making, what was more than a schoolgirl error, on presented figures to Parliament, claiming
that a third of all kids under the Labour Government had left school unable to
read or write. This was wrong-headed nonsense. The head of the UK Statistic
Authority had to come came out and publicly place a dunces hat on her head, something
they never usually do to a Minister. She was clearly in over her head, as she
confused Levels and failed to grasp what the actual statistics really meant.
This FAIL in maths should come as some embarrassment to the
Minister who claimed that pupils should focus more on maths and sciences, not
the humanities. If only her PPE bosses has taken her advice. In December, she
was also caught out by a 10 year old who asked her, on Sky News (see here), a basic GCSE
question, ‘What is the cube root of 125?’.
She refused to answer – twice. Maybe she needs to do some of that rote learning she's loves so much? The times tables farrago was her low point. Policies based on whim, another sign of a lack of intellectual depth.
Character education
But if there is one thing that has marked her out as
different, it’s ‘Character education’, an old, long-discredited idea that has
no evidence to support it, other than the views of public school types whose
education policy comes down to ‘if only everyone were like us’. For Morgan,
this seems to come from her Christian background, For ‘character’ education
read ‘moral’ education. If character is exemplified by Gove & Morgan, then
I’d march up to the school and demand that my kids exercise the right to not
attend the classes. For a more detailed analysis of this issue see ‘Character Education– an assassination’.
Nicky & Tristram
She grew up in Surbiton - surely the only duller sounding
name in the UK is Slough? Public school, Oxford – became a lawyer, every bit
the professional politician we’ve come to see as careerist and disengaged from voters. To be fair, she did get one thing right, describing Tristram Hunt as
‘vacuous’. In fact, she’s not that different from her Labour shadow, Tristram
Hunt, who is cut from the same sheep-wool cloth, devoid of any true
understanding, ideas or feel for the job.
Last word….
If I seem to
have been harsh here, it’s because I despise this public-school driven drivel,
that sees state education as dysfunctional and public schools as models of
perfection. This chapter in education policy needs to be brought to a close. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that the voters in England continue to to play out their role in Downton Abbey, happy to be subjected to the whims of toffs. This, in effect, makes education, unreformable.
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