Teachers have reacted angrily to comments from Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector of schools, who has said state schools are failing to nurture their brightest pupils. This is from the Guardian…
An investigation of 41 schools found two-thirds of the most advanced pupils entering secondary education did not achieve top GCSE results, which Wilshaw called “an issue of national concern”.
But teachers said he was pandering to Michael Gove, the education secretary, and providing misleading, unhelpful and “outrageous” conclusions.
“These conclusions are simply not true and do not stack up with Ofsted’s own conclusions that more than two-thirds of schools in this country are good or outstanding,” said Chris Keates, general secretary of the Nasuwt teachers union.
She added that the data used came from only 41 secondary schools out of a total of 4,500. “Instead of a sensible debate being opened up by a small study, we are seeing it used to condemn the whole of the state school education system which is quite frankly outrageous.
“We are not saying that there is not room for improvement, but teachers are working extremely hard to help children of every ability and have very high aspirations,” she said. “It is nothing short of scandalous that even as young people are going into school this week to take exams they have been told they are worthless and now they are being told that their teachers have failed them.”
Keates questioned Wilshaw’s impartiality. “The real story here is that the British public can no longer have any confidence in Ofsted, which has been sucked into becoming a glove puppet of the secretary of state for education. These reports are being released in line with a political ideology, to give some sort of legitimacy to a flawed education policy.”
More at: Teachers accuse Ofsted of pandering to Gove over state school criticism
Was your interpretation of yesterday’s news that Sir Michael was attacking teachers or was it a criticism of the system? Does attacking him personally really help the debate or do you support Chris Keates for taking this stance? Please let us know!
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