Many years ago the late Charles Stallard, father of the current Bishop of Llandaff and much the wisest man I have ever known, said to me that while a loyal Liberal Democrat he would probably vote for any party that agreed to do nothing in education or health for ten years. His logic was that every time you meddle, you create work, waste time and lose money. It would be better to have a prolonged period of calm to allow for sober reflection on everything.

In this, he was following the ideas of Gerald Fiennes, who in his classic polemic I Tried to Run a Railway blamed most of the ills of British Railways (as it then was) on the constant reorganisations. In thirty years, he listed seven that he had been involved in. He thought, looking back, that this had wasted enormous amounts of time, effort and money and brought no benefit whatsoever to the railway network.

I was reminded of these two when pondering what would be best to do in education. The system is in a bad way. Fragmented, disorganised, understaffed, hopelessly mismanaged, maladroitly overseen by a discredited inspection system and with a crumbling school stock, it is being kept going by lash ups. The burden falls heavily on staff, particularly senior staff. This in turn is probably storing up greater trouble later on.

Back in July, while I was on holiday boating up and down the Caledonian Canal, TSE published a thread where I listed all the challenges Bridget Phillipson faced in education and noted there was very little she could do about any of them. This was noted as a council of despair by some, who accused me of not putting forward anything constructive.

And yes, it is true I didn’t have answers to the problems. But that is because there was no answer to the problem that wouldn’t make matters worse (surprisingly, that probably includes throwing money at it given how much waste and inefficiency is in the system).

But even if I did have solutions, they wouldn’t help as Phillipson clearly has little idea of the real issues. VAT on school fees won’t make any significant difference in the state sector, whatever impact it has on the private sector. The curriculum review as instituted will almost certainly make everything worse. OFSTED is somewhere she has made modest changes that signal progress, but they don’t go nearly far enough. Unless proper safeguarding processes are implemented in inspection teams (which includes restarting the statutory training that appears not to have happened in over a decade) and it is understood that inspections of education are not solely a tick box exercise the problems will persist.

What would my advice to her be? Actually, I think a la Charles Stallard and Gerry Fiennes she would be better off doing nothing. Bad though things are, at least three or four years of quiet would be better than another three or four years of chaos, which is what she has decided to go for. For example, getting rid of academy chains would have advantages but be expensive and extremely complex. What compensation would be offered? How would struggling local authorities (themselves undergoing major reorganisation) manage the process? Who would pay for redundancies for Academy chain CEOs (which would be both expensive and very unpopular)? It could only be done overnight at risk of major disaster. As an aside, a shrewder move if she wanted to  would be to do it gradually by allowing local authorities to set up their own schools and to take over schools that are failing in academy chains (plenty of those around, despite what is sometimes claimed) but it would take time.

She won’t do nothing, of course. Like Gove before her, she’s coming across a restless meddler with an unshakeable belief in her own righteousness. Like Gove before her, she’s making alarming noises. The best we can hope for is that unlike Gove before her she gets moved before the damage gets much worse, but given how much is already underway that seems a forlorn hope.

However, from her point of view if she wishes to advance her political career she needs to find an off-ramp so she doesn’t get blamed for the fiasco. If she doesn’t, she will have some awkward questions to face at some point.

Failing as Education Secretary is not necessarily a bar to being PM, as Margaret Thatcher can explain to you. But despite the constant tipping on PB I won’t be tempted by any money on Bridget Phillipson for Labour leader.

The full quotation at the start is ‘Never put off until tomorrow what you can get out of doing altogether.’

Y Doethur

Y Doethur has taught in three universities, four schools, and worked for two exam boards. He now runs a highly successful tutoring business based in Staffordshire with a clientele on five continents. He would respectfully advise everyone to remember he hates the DfE with a passion, but that his hatred is entirely rational and based on their stupidity and incompetence.