Ming the Mouse
Sir Menzies Campbell, acting leader of the Liberal Democrats in parliament, had his prime minister's question time debut yesterday - and made a bit of a mess of it. He walked head-first into a prime-ministerial joke at his expense. The House burst into laughter, and Tony Blair soon moved on to other questions, while Sir Ming sank back into his commons seat.
Yet Sir Ming's question was an important one. Unlucky for him he is not much good at commons knock-about. More generally, Sir Ming performs well on Radio 4 and Newsnight, the more serious news programmes. It's not so clear that he could appeal convincingly to a more popular audience.
But back to his question. Sir Ming stood up to the hoots and whistles of both Labour and Tory MPs, which was their way of referring to the mess the Lib Dems had got themselves into when they decided to do assassinate their erstwhile leader, Charlie Kennedy. Sir Ming asked the PM to explain why one in five of our schools do not have a permanent head. (But, didn't the Lib Dems lack a permanent head? LOL!!) The commons chamber erupted in howls of laughter which lasted, according to Simon Hoggart, the Guardian's parliamentary correspondent, a full 38 seconds - a long, long, long time.
Finally, Tony Blair responded: "On the heads vacancies, as the right hon. and learned Gentleman knows, it can be difficult to find the head of an organisation when the post is vacant, particularly if it is a failing organisation." Nudge, nudge, wink wink! There was more laughter.
Blair's answer was no answer at best; at worst it was an admission of failure. He chose to play out the joke, and failed to acknowledge the seriousness of the problem that exists in the management and leadership of our schools. Why are school headships so difficult to fill? In a city the size of Brighton & Hove, 20% would mean that, on average, 16 of our 80 schools had no permanent headteacher. That would mean a school would either have a 'troubleshooter' on a short term contract brought in to try to turn the school around, or that the school was being managed temporarily by a deputy head, and that the governors and LEA were having problems trying to find willing candidates to fill the vacancy.
In fact, Brighton & Hove have two advertised vacancies for heads. And a quick look around the net shows that Birmingham has nine headteacher vacancies, Bristol has five, Hounslow has four, Lewisham has one, Wandsworth has one, Havering has one, Sheffield has three, Liverpool has none, Devon has two, and Hampshire has none. The Times Education Supplement, the main national source of jobs ads for school teaching vacancies, has a total of forty secondary school headteacher vacancies for the whole of the UK. Nowhere near 20%.
So where did Sir Ming get his statistic? From the National Audit Office's latest report on schools in England. It reads that: "In 2004-05, 28 per cent of primary schools and 20 per cent of secondary schools were without a permanent headteacher." Either recruitment radically improved in the second half of last year, or there are a great many headteachers on short term contracts. Or the NAO has got it numbers wrong?!
What next? Whoever is elected leader of the Lib Dems should bring the question back to prime minister's question time, and demand a thorough explanation.
Yet Sir Ming's question was an important one. Unlucky for him he is not much good at commons knock-about. More generally, Sir Ming performs well on Radio 4 and Newsnight, the more serious news programmes. It's not so clear that he could appeal convincingly to a more popular audience.
But back to his question. Sir Ming stood up to the hoots and whistles of both Labour and Tory MPs, which was their way of referring to the mess the Lib Dems had got themselves into when they decided to do assassinate their erstwhile leader, Charlie Kennedy. Sir Ming asked the PM to explain why one in five of our schools do not have a permanent head. (But, didn't the Lib Dems lack a permanent head? LOL!!) The commons chamber erupted in howls of laughter which lasted, according to Simon Hoggart, the Guardian's parliamentary correspondent, a full 38 seconds - a long, long, long time.
Finally, Tony Blair responded: "On the heads vacancies, as the right hon. and learned Gentleman knows, it can be difficult to find the head of an organisation when the post is vacant, particularly if it is a failing organisation." Nudge, nudge, wink wink! There was more laughter.
Blair's answer was no answer at best; at worst it was an admission of failure. He chose to play out the joke, and failed to acknowledge the seriousness of the problem that exists in the management and leadership of our schools. Why are school headships so difficult to fill? In a city the size of Brighton & Hove, 20% would mean that, on average, 16 of our 80 schools had no permanent headteacher. That would mean a school would either have a 'troubleshooter' on a short term contract brought in to try to turn the school around, or that the school was being managed temporarily by a deputy head, and that the governors and LEA were having problems trying to find willing candidates to fill the vacancy.
In fact, Brighton & Hove have two advertised vacancies for heads. And a quick look around the net shows that Birmingham has nine headteacher vacancies, Bristol has five, Hounslow has four, Lewisham has one, Wandsworth has one, Havering has one, Sheffield has three, Liverpool has none, Devon has two, and Hampshire has none. The Times Education Supplement, the main national source of jobs ads for school teaching vacancies, has a total of forty secondary school headteacher vacancies for the whole of the UK. Nowhere near 20%.
So where did Sir Ming get his statistic? From the National Audit Office's latest report on schools in England. It reads that: "In 2004-05, 28 per cent of primary schools and 20 per cent of secondary schools were without a permanent headteacher." Either recruitment radically improved in the second half of last year, or there are a great many headteachers on short term contracts. Or the NAO has got it numbers wrong?!
What next? Whoever is elected leader of the Lib Dems should bring the question back to prime minister's question time, and demand a thorough explanation.
posted by Mortgage Mountain at 1/12/2006 02:47:00 pm
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