No way to run schools; pupils deserve better – The Yorkshire Post says

However this loyalty – a British trait at times of strife – is being seriously tested by every utterance made by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson.

First, the muddle over the marking of A-Levels and GCSEs. Then the decision to rush back certain age groups to lessons. Now the concession that all primary school pupils won’t be able to return to school by the summer.

All the result of making policy on the hoof, a private company would be expected to go out of business if it was managed this badly.

Yet the issue here – the education and life chances of a generation of young people – risks being left to chance because of a Ministerial muddle that has left teachers, parents and pupils exasperated by Mr Williamson.

It is why The Yorkshire Post contends that the reopening of schools this term should be left to the individual discretion of schools, LEAs and academies – they’re far better placed to determine the practicalities and their judgement should be trusted.

It should be the Minister’s job, however, to task the Department for Education with providing the necessary support to all schools so the new academic year can, public health permitting, begin as normal in September. Now is not a time for prevarication.

And Mr Williamson should then be ensuring that schools and teachers have the resources they need to help pupils catch up with the skills, and studies, that they will have missed.

Essential to ensuring that today’s generation of young people are not lost, this will require him to work across the education sector, and in partnership with others, rather than making it up as he goes along.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

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James Mitchinson

Editor