Williamson’s failures on home learning expose Tory policy stupidity on ‘Broadband Communism’
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson may be acting “to the utmost of his ability”, but so was Frank Spencer – the calamitous comedy character with whom Williamson has been compared.
If this inspires confidence in you, then you’re not thinking hard enough:
https://twitter.com/PippaCrerar/status/1346828526608125952
Saying the prime minister thinks Gavin Williamson is being Education Secretary “to the utmost of his ability” is not the same as saying he has “full confidence” in him.
Williamson has far too many mistakes in his recent history for any member of the public to have full confidence in him, let alone any school pupil.
Only yesterday he admitted that his Covid-19-related failures – in both policy and practice – have made it impossible to hold GCSE, AS and A level exams this year:
"This year we're going to put our trust in teachers rather than algorithms"
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson says "a form of teacher assessed grades" will be used in England as GCSE, AS and A levels exams are cancelled
Latest: https://t.co/sEZM3Cezdq pic.twitter.com/W7SaxrS4oa
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) January 6, 2021
Perhaps you don’t grasp the enormity of the admission from what he said. Labour’s shadow Education Secretary, Kate Green, made it clear that she holds him to blame for the chaos in the education system.
Shadow education secretary Kate Green says where Gavin Williamson goes, "chaos and confusion follows and it's children, families and education staff across the country who pay the price for his incompetence"
Latest: https://t.co/sEZM3Cezdq pic.twitter.com/qus0oCEaMB
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) January 6, 2021
The reason Williamson has cancelled the exams is that the Covid-19 crisis – and its effect on schools – has made it impossible to ensure that pupils across the UK have been educated to an equivalent standard.
The reasons for the uneven standards include the fact that teachers have been unable to plan their lessons properly due to Williamson’s unfortunate habit of announcing that schools will stay open no matter what – and then closing them.
Also, he was supposed to provide laptops to pupils, in order to ensure that they could carry on learning to an acceptable standard even if they were confined to their homes. He didn’t (or at least, he didn’t provide enough).
This has now necessitated children without laptops being added to the “vulnerable” list of youngsters who have to go to school during lockdown, alongside the kids of key workers. This amounts to another example of class warfare – kids without laptops are likely to be poor, and sending them to school exposes them to the most common vector for transmission of the killer virus:
The reason children without laptops are now being given the unsafe option to go back into schools (described as "vectors for transmission" by PM) is BECAUSE the Education Secretary failed to live up to his promise to deliver 230K digital devices before end of summer term last yr https://t.co/2gYwboAV5q
— Dr Zubaida Haque (@Zubhaque) January 6, 2021
Finally, there’s the fact that some families don’t have access to the broadband internet connections necessary to experience this kind of home learning.
The Tories now agree with Labour that this is a good idea – but it is too late to implement it in time to help this year’s crop of exam-takers.
Let us remind ourselves of the reaction – from the Tories and the mass media – when the Labour Party proposed free broadband across the UK in the run-up to the 2019 general election:
When I published Labour’s policy on free broadband in November 2019 I said “It’s about large numbers of children being able to do their homework properly, and have the speed of connectivity.” The BBC described it as Broadband Communism. Interesting how relevant it’s now become.
— John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) January 5, 2021
https://twitter.com/SolHughesWriter/status/1346424508463329282
Who was right?
John McDonnell and Labour, of course (Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour, that is. Kate Green, while being right about Gavin Williamson, also said that schools should stay open. That’s the lunacy of the party under Keir Starmer for you)).
If that party had been elected, free broadband would have been brought to the UK, school pupils would have been able not only to do their homework but to carry out distance learning, preparing them for their exams which would not have had to be cancelled – and it would have helped adults to work from home as well, which would have been a great help to a great many people during lockdown, as well.
That’s the problem with silly Tory ideological incompetence.
Their failure to accept the wisdom of free broadband, and their failure to equip school pupils for home learning, means Williamson has been forced to cancel exams because pupils are not well-enough educated.
As a result, the UK’s workforce will be less competitive in the world marketplace in the future, when compared with other countries that were better-prepared and more willing to help everybody in their populations, rather than just the very rich.
So when we look at the malady afflicting the UK’s education system under the Conservatives, during the Covid-19 crisis, we can see one thing clearly:
Williamson is a symptom of the illness. Conservative government is the cause.
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Promoted to the level of his incompetence. Reminds me of Grayling. And yes, of course the national broadband idea would have been an absolute godsend now, wouldn’t it? Boosting both education and industry, allowing those in even rural areas to apply for jobs that are traditionally in London only. This would even have had a knock on effect in helping the environment too. A simple but brilliant and progressive idea. Maybe the SNP will do it in Scotland?
Now that we’ve Starmer in the chair there’s little chance of any progressive politics. After 14 years of Tory rule, Brexit, the COVID pandemic and the absolute disaster that is Boris Johnson you’d think that Labour should walk into No 10 with a stonking majority by the next GE? But I’m beginning to have my doubts. He deliberately demolished the ‘Red Wall’ with stating the policy, before it was policy, and then leading the charge to change the policy on Brexit. He insisted on a second vote instead of Corbyn’s ‘respect the vote’ policy. He did this in the full knowledge that it would kill Labour stone dead in their heartlands – it did. He did this to oust Corbyn and have himself installed as leader. Since which time he has successively missed the open goal that is Boris Johnson at every single PMQs.
IF Labour win at the next GE I doubt it will be a large majority. It could well result in the kind of governance we got from Theresa May ie infighting in the party and squabbling over every single vote. At least Labour would never deal with the DUP (I’d hope!) If that DOESN’T happen we’ll see yet another term of Tory disaster with a much reduced majority and perhaps another deal with the devil. This would be a disaster upon disaster. Given the state of things I’m not sure that Labour can redeem itself by then. I’m sure Starmer won’t let it, he’ll be hoping for the voters’ short attention span – insulting, isn’t it?
Much as I agree that free broadband would be welcome, if Labour had won the election in late 2019, the chances of the project even being started, let alone rolled out to the entire population, before covid-19 hit would be trillions to 1. Hopefully, when things get back to normal, if ever, folks will remember 2020 and take another look at the policy. I’m not holding my breath though. Tories will need their dosh for their latest farcical project.