As Sir Michael Wilshaw Hands In His Badge, How Will His Successor Uphold The Law?
Now the Ofsted chief is riding off into the sunset, is there anyone brave enough to fill his boots?
Sir Michael Wilshaw, who once memorably likened himself to Clint Eastwood, is swaggering moodily and narrow-eyed towards the Ofsted exit; still snarling, gun-slinging and swinging punches at anyone and anything he has taken a dislike to.
The list is gratifyingly long. Theresa May’s bonkers grammar schools policy – thwack! Sloppy leadership in secondaries – biff! And, for private schools that won’t sponsor an academy, a well-aimed cowboy boot where it hurts – right in the charitable status.
I confess, at first, I was not a fan (of Wilshaw, I’ve always loved Clint) – early on he took too many easy swipes at teachers. But as he has grown into the role, he has actually become a powerful advocate for the profession and, especially and most laudably, for disadvantaged children. Like Clint, he speaks truth to power and doesn’t care whom he offends along the way, which is why he polarises opinion.
He has changed Ofsted for the better, mainly by dispensing with the services of the private contractors whose rogue inspectors made the system into such a lottery of inconsistency. HMI-led inspections are an undoubted improvement on that, though still far from perfect. The Ofsted brief itself is still too broad and unwieldy and its supposedly definitive framework is still subject to monthly tweaks and revisions that mean, just when you thought you had it sussed, they add another hoop to jump through. Nonetheless, he has achieved quite a bit and at least he was never dull, like too many of his predecessors.
His successor seems rather vanilla in comparison. Likely to be a classic box-ticker, she is not from an education background and looks set to bring ordered business methods to the frontier town of education – because we haven’t had nearly enough of those, have we?
The flaw in transferring such methods is that, in the main, businesses generally don’t have excluded children returning to call an employee a ‘fat bitch’ or parents whinging on about putting their poorly behaved children on detention, or not getting in the football team or school play.
Also, businesses don’t have people like Sir Michael, or indeed the Prime Minister, telling them how they should do it ‘like this’, then changing their mind and telling them to do it ‘like that’ the following week.
Whatever next?
I hope Sir Michael doesn’t ride out of town for good. The question of what to do once your main career is over is one that vexes us all, but I particularly hope he uses his undoubted ability for something worthwhile, rather than simply taking the TV shilling like others exiting public life.
Michael Portillo, loathed by the liberal left for his alleged nastiness when he was a Tory MP, eventually (partially) rehabilitated himself as ‘that nice chap’ in pastel clothes who makes slightly twee travel documentaries about trains – though occasionally he still has the mad-eyed look of a man who might tie you to the track and walk away rubbing his hands.
Former Labour Education Secretary and Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, has reinvented himself on Strictly Come Dancing. Unfortunately for Ed, but entertainingly for the rest of us, he has reinvented himself as a fool – the dignity of high office swapped for the indignity of low Saturday evening peak-time light entertainment.
There is a massive TV vacancy, of course, as a result of Mary Berry leaving the revamped Bake Off – but Sir Michael, self-proclaimed maverick, would be less Cheery Mary and more Dirty Harry, another iconic Clint Eastwood movie character. Much as I would love to hear some of Clint’s great lines channelled through Sir Michael while discussing the merits of fairy cakes (“That’s your opinion, but opinions are like assholes – everybody has one.”) I can’t see it being a ratings hit with middle England.
The thing is though, Clint – even when the role demanded he be short-tempered and intolerant – always played the goody. A maverick, yes, whom some loved and some loathed, because he operated in that murky grey area that was neither black nor white, and used methods which were sometimes hard, unpleasant and occasionally beyond the pale – but ultimately, at heart, he was always a good guy. Just a shame that in real life he’s a Trump supporter.
Turns out Sir Michael ‘Clint’ Wilshaw, was a pretty good guy too; and there’s no sign of him endorsing Trump just yet.
