School boards

Ain't gubmint a wonderful thing? Where would we be without them?

Today our protectors in Holyrood have announced their long-awaited plans for school boards:

Deputy Education Minister Robert Brown said:

"Parents and headteachers are probably the most important influences on children's experiences at school. It is vital that we build strong partnerships and ensure that parents are an integral part of the appointment process. Indeed, this is only part of our wider programme to involve more parents in their children's education.

 

Robert Brown, Deputy Education Minister & Dissimulating Creep 

Unfortunately for parents of school age children in Scotland Deputy Education Minister Robert Brown is a dissimulating creep. Well, actually he's a real creep, but he is dissimulating.

At the moment parents currently occupy half of the seats on each school board in Scotland. This gives them a great deal of power, particularly in the appointment of headteachers. Of course the teaching unions don't like this one bit - can't have uppity parents having any say in their children's education can we? And of course money talks, so Labour, supported by their LibDem acolytes have decided to bow to their paymasters' demands and to do away with school boards.

And what will replace them? Well, according to the Creep, the new regulations will

The proposed regulations will:

    ensure that parent councils are consulted before any recruitment process begins
    give parents a legal right to be involved in the short listing process
    guarantee parents make up at least one third of any appointment panel

As everyone knows "consulted" is a word which, in government circles, means "ignored". To "be involved" means that they can watch the grownups talking. And making up a third of the appointment panel means that they can be outvoted by the education establishment. The decisions are now out of the hands of parents and the nanny state will look after us.

Ain't the gubmint a marvellous thing.