Today (Friday 8th October), Paul Whiteman,
general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, will address
members at the association's Annual Policy Conference in London.
In his speech he will say that the government’s rhetoric on
education must be backed up by action, and that the government’s
goals for education recovery must be more ambitious:
“Whilst I am encouraged by the language of levelling up, the
language that no child should be left behind, and the language of
just how important education is, I am continually left
disappointed that the rhetoric is not backed up by action.
“There has been intense debate about ‘education recovery’ in
recent months: what form it should take, what pupils have missed
out on, and what it will cost. What worries me about this is how
narrow that discussion sounds. ‘Recovery’ implies a return to
what we had before, which is simply not good enough.
“The world has changed and will continue to change at a startling
pace. The UK increasingly stands alone in the world. Our goal as
a nation must be to equip young people with the skills to
navigate what is in front of them. Those who want to govern us
must be bold enough to propose something truly ambitious and
world-beating.”
He will welcome the new Education Secretary (who will be speaking at
conference on Saturday), and will say that the profession stands
ready to work with him, but they must be listened to:
“The profession stands ready to work with new Secretary of State
for Education. It would not be right for us to hold him
personally responsible for the mistakes of the past. We are all
keen to hear his vision for the future.
“But please don’t exhaust what is left of our goodwill by making
that engagement nothing more than window dressing. The mistakes
and U-turns that characterised the last year and a half almost
always came down to a lack of proper consultation with the
profession. Only by genuinely working together can we achieve
much needed change.
“NAHT and school leaders throughout the UK stand ready to take
responsibility for the work that needs to be done to help pupils
move past the pandemic. All we ask is for the government to match
our ambition with investment.”
Mr Whiteman will also praise school leaders for the vital role
they have played during the pandemic:
“I won't quickly forget, nor will I fail to remind those in
power, of the false and damaging narrative some of them used.
Some sought to paint a picture of lazy teachers and lazy school
leaders in the middle of the pandemic. When actually you, and
your colleagues, were working as hard as anybody else in the
frontline.
“There is no doubt in my mind that the intense work of schools
during the last eighteen months has shielded many young people
from the worst effects of the pandemic. The people who used those
words should be ashamed. Let us hope that under new management
the DfE will be able to persuade the rest of government that the
future success of these nations rests on the shoulders of
education.”
