Nadhim Zahawi defended the decision to publish secondary school league tables for the first time in the Covid pandemic when he appeared before MPs today.
He also faced accusations that his department’s new Schools White Paper had overlooked the importance of skills in schools in favour of a “knowledge-rich curriculum”.
Mr Zahawi faced the Commons Education Select Committee this morning following the publication of both the government’s Schools White Paper and SEND Green Paper at the end of last month.
Here is everything you need to know:
Ofsted inspections to be used to hold MATs to account
A central goal of the new White Paper is to have all schools in, or on their way to, multi-academy trusts (MATs) by 2030. It also includes plans for a new regulatory framework for overseeing MATs.
The role of Ofsted inspections will be part of the government’s review into how to regulate trusts, MPs were told today.
The government’s Opportunity for All White Paper announced the launch of a regulatory review into MATs - including how the government will hold trusts to account through inspection in the future.
At the committee hearing today, Conservative MP Caroline Ansell asked why Ofsted currently carry out evaluations of MATs rather than inspections.
Ofsted has repeatedly called for the powers to be able to inspect trusts but presently cannot do so.
Instead, it carries out evaluations about MATs based on findings of school-level inspections of schools within a trust.
Andrew McCully, the director general for schools in the Department for Education, who was giving evidence alongside Mr Zahawi, said: “As the secretary of state said, we are going to carry out a full review of the regulatory framework for MATs.
“The role of inspection needs to be part of that - you have to start with a basis for the recognition of what a strong trust is, against which you can draw conclusions.
“Ofsted and the role of inspection will definitely be part of that regulatory review and we will be working really closely with Ofsted on that but you have to have the review first.”
He did not say whether this would mean Ofsted would directly inspect MATs.
Zahawi ‘did not want to exclude councils’ from running MATs
Mr Zahawi was also quizzed on the White Paper policy for allowing councils to set up MATs.
He was asked if a local authority would be “precluded” from forming a trust if there were high performing trusts in their area.
The government’s White Paper has said that local authorities will be able to establish new MATs where too few strong trusts exist.
However, Mr Zahawi indicated that he was open to councils running MATs in areas where strong trusts already exist as well.
He told Ms Ansell that he was “open-minded” on this, adding: “If they think they can do it well, and they can set this up, and there’s no conflict of interest that we would need to work with them on to iron out, then we can do this.”
Robert Halfon, chair of the Commons Education Select Committee, then challenged this policy, asking “what the point” was of saying local authorities could set up a trust when schools were being taken away from local authorities to form academy trusts.
Mr Zahawi replied: “My motivation was the fairness argument.” He said county councillors had previously asked why they were excluded from setting up trusts, and so his response was to say: “Come and join us on this journey.”
League tables not about ‘finger-pointing’
Mr Zahawi defended the decision to publish secondary school league tables this year amid Covid disruption. He told MPs that he would be “out there” getting the message across that this was not about finger-pointing at schools.
He was asked by Conservative MP Miriam Cates whether the government was going ahead with league tables this year and whether he thought it was a level playing field in which to publish this data when schools have faced differing levels of disruption.
It follows sustained criticism from headteachers’ leaders about the decision to bring league tables back this summer.
Mr Zahawi said: “We know there has been disruption this year and last year because of the pandemic and so, as long as you frame it in such a way, I don’t think you should just hide the data.
“I think it’s much better to publish but to frame it in such a way that this has been a challenging period. This isn’t about finger-pointing, it’s about learning how do we put the resources and support the improvement where it is needed.”
Mr Zahawi said: “I think data and transparency are important but I also think that words matter. What do I mean by that? I mean we have to publish these numbers because it is right but also to explain to parents…that [this] isn’t about finger-pointing and saying ‘oh look at this school doing so much better than the neighbouring school’. It is about being able to say ‘what did we learn from these numbers in terms of the improvement journey’.”
Ms Cates said that parents will still draw comparisons between schools when these results are published.
‘The ghost of Nick Gibb’ lives on in White Paper, Zahawi told
Robert Halfon, chair of the Commons Education Select Committee, quizzed the education secretary on what he described as a lack of a focus on pre-16 skills in the government’s White Paper.
He told the session he believed that the White Paper should have had more on skills for pre-16, financial education, oracy, careers education and “embedding that in the school ecosystem”.
“Your White Paper seemed to be all about one side of the equation”, he added.
Mr Zahawi said he disagreed with the characterisation of the White Paper as “lacking in the ability to develop children in a rounded way”.
But Mr Halfon responded: “It seems to me you’ve had the traditionalists go through this, and God forbid you to mention the words ‘skills’ and ‘pre-16’ in the White Paper.”
“The ghost of Nick Gibb lives on in the department” he added.
Mr Gibb served as a school minister for most of the last decade until he lost his job in the government reshuffle last year, which also saw Mr Zahawi replace Gavin Williamson.
Mr Gibb regularly championed a knowledge-rich curriculum - something that has been controversial amongst some educators.
He is also seen as a driving force behind traditionalist government education reforms, including the promotion of synthetic phonics in primary schools and the promotion of English Baccalaureate subjects in secondary schools.
