Ofsted: "requires improvement"

Derek McMillan, Mid-Sussex Socialist Party

Ofsted, the body responsible for inspecting schools, wants to toughen the language of inspections in England - changing the "satisfactory" rating to "requires improvement". Ofsted are notorious for their violence towards the English language and towards education in general.

By sleight of hand they change "satisfactory" to "unsatisfactory". They label schools as "failing" in order to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Who would want to send their children to a "failing" school? Or teach at one?

And the not-so-hidden agenda? Christine Blower, general secretary of teachers union NUT, bluntly pointed out "The government's real agenda behind this change is of course inventing yet another category of schools that it will then seek to force into academy status."

In a welcome move another teachers union, NASUWT, echoed the NUT's concern: "The seemingly tough talk we have heard from the government today, may have popular appeal but the reality is that it has nothing to do with raising standards. Instead, it is about ratcheting up pressure on schools, without providing the support and resources they need to assist them in securing further improvements.

"This announcement will encourage a culture of vicious management practices within schools which will have a profoundly negative effect on the workforce and children and young people alike."

Nothing illustrates Gove's hypocrisy more clearly than his dodgy 'free school' project. For all his blather about raising standards, free schools like the proposed one in Southwater, Horsham, are not required to have qualified teachers.

So any Tom, Dick or Harriet off the street can come and teach our children on the cheap. The private schools the millionaires in the government send their children to are staffed by professionals. If Gove gets his way they will be the only schools that are!

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