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Gavin Williamson: should he stay or should he go?

We cannot let PM Johnson continue to erode accountability for those who rule us so badly — the exam scandal should mean the end for the Secretary of State for Education, argues HANK ROBERTS

FIRST the head of Ofqual Sally Collier went. Now the education permanent secretary Jonathan Slater has gone. Two down — any others to go?

The magnificent victory that we have achieved in preventing the outrageous and pernicious attack on working-class children’s education warrants further reflection and analysis.

Was it incompetence? Certainly. Was it deliberate? Well it certainly wasn’t accidental was it?

The class nature of education policy in Britain, particularly but not exclusively of Conservative governments, is well illustrated by the fact that out of 55 prime ministers, 46 (including Tony Blair) have come from a very small number of elite “public schools.” Boris Johnson is the 20th Old Etonian to be PM.

The fact that we have in Britain, virtually uniquely in the world, a highly stratified school education system, with a small percentage (7 per cent) being privately and overwhelmingly better-educated than the 93 per cent rest of us, is well known.

The nature and reach of this is not so well known.

Within that 7 per cent there is further huge differentiation. Those at the very top having “facilities that a five-star hotel might be envious of,” to quote from Engines of Privilege: Britain’s Private School Problems by Francis Green and David Kynaston.

They have shone the searchlight onto the effects of this hugely discriminating system.

Attend the “Clarendon” schools — Charterhouse, Eton, Harrow, Merchant Taylors, Rugby, St Paul’s, Shrewsbury, Westminster, Winchester — and you are 94 times more likely to join the elite (ie ruling class) than any ordinary British educated person.

Then, the book says, they get “approximately three times the resources” as what is available at the average state school.

“Eton has a pupil-teacher ratio of one to eight with a multitude of support staff. They have 3D studios for printmaking, drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, computer graphics and photography.

“They have three well-equipped theatres and other convertible drama spaces. They have extensive field trips and foreign exchanges, concerts and mountaineering expeditions.

“There is a sports programme of rugby, hockey, football, cricket, rowing, athletics squash and any number of minor pursuits from badminton and beagling and water polo and wind surfing, from the Olympic spec rowing lake to the famous playing fields.

“They are supported by three school doctors, five nurses and a consultant psychiatrist.

“They initiate, in common with all public schools, their alumni into a support network after they have left school in which old Etonians have an expectation of being required to support old Etonians and in turn get support from them when they need it.”

Others have things such as equestrian centres, clay pigeon shooting, recording studios, golf courses and they all have at least one swimming pool.

The recent chart-topping, scandalous exam debacle overseen by Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson is a continuation on the theme of favouring the rich and discriminating against the working class.

However, Williamson’s actions and performance in this have reached new depths of mental anguish and harm done.

Nearly the entire country has volubly expressed its view. Even the August 18 front page of the Times read: “Conservative MPs suggest Mr Williamson should resign.”

“The man who won’t take the blame” boomed the Daily Mail.

The question arising from this is should he have taken the rap? The parliamentary system is one of ministerial responsibility — and the answer is yes, the buck stops with Williamson.

In Johnson, however, we have a PM who does not believe that he or anyone serving him should be held accountable.

He is seeking to remove ministerial responsibility, to assist in removing prime ministerial responsibilities.

Johnson didn’t resist sacking Dominic Cummings over his lockdown transgressions because he was his friend.

Keeping Cummings in position despite his flagrant breach of what was then supposedly the law was to demonstrate that Johnson and his coterie were above the law. There was and is to be no accountability.

The Cummings incident — and now Williamson’s case — is designed to demonstrate that there is no point in expecting accountability.

This does not mean we should stop demanding it. To do so would only assist Johnson’s aim of eroding democracy.

The price will come and we must ensure it comes sooner rather than later. Thatcher paid the price. They removed her because they were forced to by working-class pressure and determined revolt demonstrated by the poll tax riots — but even more so, by the ever increasing numbers of citizens who were determined not to pay it.

Further, the drastic fall in the opinion polls of support for the Conservatives and still lower for Thatcher herself.

So, shouldn’t we call for Williamson’s head, for him to resign?

Is it not time for the unions and the TUC to call for this?

What more damage does he have to do to warrant this?

And the removal of puppets must be accompanied by, ultimately, the removal of the puppeteer Johnson himself.

Hank Roberts is a member of the National Education Union executive. He writes here in a personal capacity.

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