The contradictions of our politicians

It’s always good to find that education ministers are in tune with the profession. Last week schools minister Nick Gibb admitted that there is a looming problem with regard to teacher recruitment and retention: he promised the government is tackling it.

Interestingly, government has hitherto denied there’s a problem. Credit, then, to Mr Gibb who has identified a mismatch between the figures he is given and what teachers are telling him: “In devising policy, I’m assuming what I’m hearing from (teachers) is true, and the statistics somehow – albeit true – are not telling us the whole story.”

Is he really listening to teachers? That’s cheering. More encouraging, perhaps, than my discovery, in a profile of the minister a fortnight ago, that he has a map on his office wall charting every area where schools or authorities are not up to scratch on the phonics tests he so loves. Up a ladder, down a snake: that’s education politics, folks!