coisas da educação... reflexões para o fim de dia...!

do editorial do the guardian, sobre a publicação anual do relatório ofsted...

"There are a number of things the chief inspector of schools can do with the platform that comes with the publication of his annual report. He might use it to goad teachers to greater effort. Or he can use it to carpet the education secretary. He might even point to the way schools are getting better and thank everyone involved for their efforts before moving on to some measured and nuanced criticism, although that is not part of the Ofsted culture. Sir Michael Wilshaw, launching his report today after a bruising year of allegations of extremism in schools and rumours about his own future, chose to infuriate his entire client base in the space of half an hour. Of course, his recognition that outcomes are more influenced by the quality of teaching and school leadership than the style of the school itself is welcomed. His criticism of the way academy autonomy can translate into dangerous isolation when things go wrong is an important point. But his attack on slipping standards in secondary schools was only a very partial account of what is happening.

Sir Michael – still in his job – must have relished showing Michael Gove – no longer education secretary – that the education establishment Mr Gove famously dismissed as “the blob” can bite. He made serious points – “a new nameplate and a portentous motto” do not translate automatically into a better school – that will make uncomfortable reading for Mr Gove’s successor, Nicky Morgan, as she tries to calm teachers while preserving the legacy of his school reforms. Sir Michael emphasised the importance of support for schools before they get into trouble, particularly those in areas where most other schools are struggling. He attacked a particularly Govean scheme, School Direct, which recruits trainee teachers directly into classrooms, for concentrating the talent in schools that are already successful, leaving those where they are really needed deprived of good young teachers. Some of these weaknesses have been recognised: in September a new level of support, regional school commissioners, was introduced, and David Cameron has promised that what was billed as a hit squad would be on permanent standby to tackle school failure.

If this punitive approach, which begins in Whitehall but is echoed by Ofsted, ever had its hour, it is past. As one teacher blogged recently, politicians want change to happen quickly when schools need it to happen carefully. Ofsted is harsh to criticise schools for slipping up when the inspection guidelines are often changed at short notice – the latest idea is for pupils’ exercise books to be assessed – while Mr Gove’s determination to introduce more rigour into public exams has depressed results for the past two years. Nor, when recruitment is becoming a serious challenge and the system is on the brink of a demographic bulge, was it a helpful intervention. Maybe Sir Michael felt it was a necessary backdrop against which to make his case for better ways of improving schools. As the Trojan horse experience in Birmingham showed last summer, neither local authority control, nor remote control from the centre, can be relied on to work."

aqui.