School leaders express ‘shock’ over Williamson knighthood

Headteachers and teachers’ leaders have expressed their “shock” and “surprise” over the news that former education secretary Gavin Williamson has been awarded a knighthood.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said headteachers would be “surprised” to learn the news about the South Staffordshire MP.

He added that the challenges of the pandemic and their impact on education would have been “challenging for any education secretary, and this needs to be recognised”.

“But the experience of schools and colleges of Mr Williamson during his tenure as education secretary was one of endless muddle, inevitable U-turns, and even threats of legal action to override local decisions,” he said.

“This was not all Mr Williamson’s fault.

“The hand of Downing Street was detectable amidst the chaos too.”

“However, many parents will share our surprise that his record in this role warrants the conferring of a knighthood.”

Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said of the news: “Members of the public who thinks that honours such as this should be a reward for honourable service and being effective at competent in your job?

“Well, no one could really say that Gavin Williamson was any of these.”

“It’s true that he was actually saved for education, that it’s a very, very difficult time.

“But if there was a wrong decision to be made, Gavin Williamson unerringly made it,” she added.

“He wasn’t helped by Downing Street.

“That’s absolutely true.

“But, you know, this is a classic example of being promoted upwards for failure – keep failing upwards,” she added.

“I also suspect that Boris Johnson knows very well, that he shares some of the blame for the catastrophic handling of education during Covid and this is a sop to his conscience, that he left Gavin Williamson to front up some of the very bad decisions have been made at number 10, rather than the DfE”, she said.

“So this is this is a belated compensation for having been the fall guy for some of Number 10’s bad decisions, although he was quite capable of making many of his own.”

“The teachers and the head teachers and the education professionals who did keep education going at their own huge personal and professional cost, will well, many will be outraged by this, because they had to deal not only with Covid, but with Gavin Williamson’s incompetence, and they will be outraged that he has been rewarded for his failure in this way.”

Steve Chalke, founder of Oasis Charitable Trust, which runs 52 schools across England, told the PA news agency: “It’s a surprise and a shock.

“I have no inside knowledge of the criteria that it takes to offer someone a knighthood.

“I’m sure that those who’ve made that decision have their reasons for doing it.”

He added: “I can think of endless wonderful headteachers who I think deserve a knighthood.

“I think they’ve soldiered away through two years of open and shut, lockdowns and government advice and guidance that has been issued and withdrawn, issued and changed, often at the last moment.”

Mr Chalke said that an “extraordinary act of recognition” would be if an honorary award such as the George Cross were given to headteachers for their efforts during the pandemic, just as it was awarded to the NHS.

“I can think of off the top of my head a hundred educationalists, I could literally I can sit here and name them who have served on the frontline throughout this pandemic, which is the period of Gavin Williamson’s service,” he said.

“And they’ve kept education going, whatever has been thrown at them.

“And my comment to the awards committee would be that I am surprised that they have not more widely acknowledged the extraordinary contribution of people on the frontline who’ve been on the receiving end of late advice and conflicting advice.”

Lib Dem education spokesperson Munira Wilson said Mr Williamson’s knighthood is “an insult to every child, parent and teacher who struggled through Covid”.

And former shadow schools minister Wes Streeting said the knighthood was a “reward for failure”.