THE GLOVES-OFF, new broom approach, with which the Labour government has dazzled from the start, today looked set to spark a row with the teaching unions.

The issue is the government's naming of more than a dozen "failing" schools.

The unions do not like it.

Public humiliation would only make things worse, they say.

What, of course, the unions are doing, in railing against naming and shaming, is supporting their members who work in these bad schools.

That, they may feel, is their duty. But in upholding it, are they not upholding something else - that bad teaching remains unexposed?

What virtue is there in that?

Is not the teaching profession's first duty to our children? Do they not have a right to a good education?

It would seem that this no-nonsense new government is addressing that concern today more than are the teaching unions.

After all, these schools on the "shame" list have already been given the chance to improve and have not done so.

So why let them get away with it? Must no-one take the blame? Surely, parents have a right to know if their children are being let down.

The government has acted tough, with schools standards minister Stephen Byers calling for reports of all 281 failing schools within days of taking office.

In addition, education secretary David Blunkett has laid down a rule of which all parents will approve - that they will not tolerate failure robbing children of their only chance of a good education.

By seeking to cover up failure, the teaching unions are inevitably sticking up for it - and letting down the vast majority of teachers who are working hard to provide a good education for their pupils.

And if today the government dismisses their efforts to prevent identification of bad schools, it will, quite rightly, be telling them that their outlook is intolerable.

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