It is reported here in the Guardian that Schools Minister Lord Nash is "employing" his own daughter Josephine, to teach in his Academies. I place the word employing in inverted commas because Josephine does this for free. She has no teaching qualifications to teach History to years 6, 7, and 11, but because she does this for nothing I guess some people might think this is OK.
Well some of the parents of the children taught by Josephine don't think it is OK and they have complained to the Academy Trust. So I guess Lord Nash will have to raise it in a board meeting, talk to himself, and then decide if he is going to tell himself off. As the board mainly comprises Lord Nash and his wife, I think we can all guess what the outcome of that discussion might be. As Lord Nash does not believe in having parents on the board of governors in his Academies I think we can all see how much weight he is going to give to parents' views.
Josephine is also writing the History Curriculum for the Academies in the trust and in her spare moments she appoints staff to the Academies.
Expectations
If you were a hedge fund manager who gave loadsa money to the Conservative Party, you probably expected to be handed a peerage and then to be given an unelected ministerial position in government, followed by 4 state schools for free. So letting your own daughter teach History to some of the kids, and letting her appoint your staff, seems perfectly normal.
Well to some of us it feels like the worst type of nepotism. Apparently it is all totally legal. Of course Lord Nash is responsible for writing the rules on Academies so no problems here.
OFSTED
What would OFSTED think? Well, Lord Nash has prevented OFSTED inspecting Academy chains, so no problems here either.
Other Opportunities
I started to wonder how this approach might work in other areas of work.
Perhaps a Police Chief Constable could let his civilian daughter loose in a squad car, or let her arrest a few criminals on a Saturday afternoon. After all, everyone can drive a car and we have all seen drunks at the weekend.
How about a hospital trust CEO getting his non-doctor son do a few operations. They are technically his trust's patients so they probably wouldn't mind being operated on. The trust CEO has mentioned many details about operations over the years at the dinner table and his son is a quick learner. Executives know that learning from mistakes is an essential part of life (and death).
Thank you Lord Nash
I'm sure dear reader that you can think of many other examples. We should thank Lord Nash for bringing the skills he has learnt as a hedge fund manager, into our state education service. It will save a lot of money in teacher costs in the long run and Lord Nash obviously knows a lot about the power of money.
No comments:
Post a Comment