Minister of Education

The word ‘historic’ can only ever be applied after, sometimes long after, an event has occurred. We need the perspective of time to allow a proper judgement to be made. I wonder if, over the next decade in education we shall look back on last week’s statement by the Minister of Education and say, “That’s when it all started; that’s when the sea change in Northern Irish education really began”.

The Minister’s statement to the Assembly on Monday last was long and, although accessibly written, on the surface rather dull, as only ministerial statements can be. Through it all, however, I had the sense of a clear mind and a visionary strategy. I use the word ‘visionary’ neutrally, because there are visions which are hallucinatory and hellish, as well as those which show us how to reach the Promised Land.
For the first time in my memory, the Minister chose to speak  directly to teachers by means of a video sent via the internet, and this, I guess, was meant to be reassuring and friendly. Its effect was peculiarly unsettling. He spoke about ‘working together’ and I wondered how that applied to the possibly hundreds of teachers about to be made redundant; I also wondered what part in the ‘working together,’ schools and teachers would play and whether the relationship would be quite as collaborative as the words suggest. When politicians speak, sharpen your sceptical pencil, reach for the code book and translate as you transcribe.

One of the things the Minister said he was going to do was to give boards of governors more power to exercise the ‘challenge function’. If there is one thing of which we may be sure in the Grammar School, it is that our Board of Governors exercises that function very ably indeed. A good school needs good governance and that is derived from good governors. In this the School is well served.