Denials in Education just go on

FOR a politician as under fire as the Education minister to volunteer to go on the BBC phone-in yesterday took considerable courage – and a determination to explain why the department hasn't failed in its £75m. mission to give local children the best possible start in life.

Unfortunately, it took less than 20 minutes to demonstrate why she was not – and is not – the right person to lead Education.

From the outset, two things became painfully clear: she had missed the underlying point of the Mulkerrin report and was interested only in denying the criticisms contained in it.

For her to claim that she was misled about the focus of the investigation and had been stitched up as a result was jaw-dropping. As a Policy Council member she was there when the terms of reference were agreed and, having been interviewed for two and a half hours for the report, knew where Mulkerrin was coming from.

Instead of a vague rubbishing of Mulkerrin's conclusions, she could have explained why Education ruled out adopting a successful, performance-based English system of education with devolved, local management of schools. But she did not.

She could have explained why Mulkerrin's headline finding, that GCSE results are a symptom of a much larger problem in the monitoring, management and structure of education in the island, was wrong. But she did not.

The minister could have announced her immediate resignation, triggering a clean start. But she did not. Instead, she will cling on, in denial, desperately trying to block a report that has the potential to revitalise the provision of education.

It later emerged that she does not speak for the department as a whole and what was at first merely embarrassing radio theatre now has the potential to become real tragedy.

The department has until June to decide how to implement the Mulkerrin recommendations and from the beginning of next month it will finally have a new chief officer.

But the minister's desire to remain in office until the general election in late April creates another problem.

Yet again, the ego of individuals is more important than the island's schoolchildren.