Being Wrong

 As someone who is wrong most of the time, I find this idea that admitting you made a mistake is a failure to be bizarre.

Yes, the A level exam thing is an unholy mess. Yes, they should have seen it coming. No, it’s still not fully fixed for everyone. But should they resign, or stay and fix the mess they’ve created? Maybe even learn from their mistakes?

The man at Offqual took the blame. He was interviewed on the news via Skype and said how sorry he was that they didn’t realise that applying a statistical model (that probably had less significance in a global pandemic) to actual people meant that individuals would be upset. He looked broken. He knows that once he has apologised he will lose his job because in our society no one can be allowed to fail, except students at the bottom end of society’s computer algorithm. You see, you are either at the top or the bottom, there’s no room for movement and you certainly can’t do badly one day and well the next.

Gavin Williamson is being urged to resign too. How could he not have seen this coming? Why did it take him until the weekend when he saw young future Tory voters march in furious protest to realise the mistake? People cry that he should  go! However, no one wants that job, only an idiot would willingly replace him.

The argument goes that when something has been messed up this badly, the person in charge is incompetent and therefore shouldn’t be doing the job. However, I wonder what would happen if we forced them to stay and clear up their mess? The education secretary is a thankless job that no one can be properly qualified for. Would you have to be a teacher? A headteacher? Primary? Senior? Have Specisl needs training? Have worked in a grammar school, an inner city comprehensive, a private school? Education moves so fast (because we have so many different Education Secretaries) then if they had been out of teaching for more than a few years then those qualifications would be irrelevant. Politically, Education is a mess anyway, so what if Gav said, “Hands up, I made a mistake. Totes should have been on it sooner but I’m not going to leave the job. I’m going to stay and learn from my mistakes.”

The alternative is that he leaves, some other idiot gets the job and he gets promoted to a cushy little job as compensation, which feels like a reward and no one ever learns. Also, what kind of message does it send? Teachers are always trying to get kids to develop a growth mindset and not quit every time something goes wrong.