THERE’S a lot of sense in the call from the Commons select committee for governors of failing schools to be removed quickly in the same way as the headteacher often is.
MPs said the move would help raise standards and they also said school governors should be given better training and support as well as time off by their employers so they could devote more attention to what is a very important role.
But – and it’s a huge but – as Huncoat Primary School governor Simon Gott pointed out last week in this newspaper, such calls are not going to happen in reality for a number of reasons.
Calls for employers to give more time off won’t be acted upon by the vast majority of bosses who are fighting to keep businesses afloat in the teeth of a lengthy recession.
That recession is also one of the reasons why having sacked one set of governors, most schools would find it extremely difficult to replace them with people who have the skills and motivation to carry out the role.
We live now more than ever in a world where volunteers are urgently needed in all sorts of areas, just to keep our society going.
When he first came into office, the Prime Minister made strong public calls for people to become active in a voluntary capacity and it soon became clear why.
Government cuts in public expenditure have left local authorities unable to finance many, many activities which everyone had got used to them providing, or even maintain the fabric of buildings.
The idea that the private sector should be given a chance to run things only works if they are going to be able to profit from ventures, because companies at the end of the day are responsible to their shareholders who expect dividends to keep their pension funds going or boost their savings.
So with most parents leading ever busier lives, the only real source of voluntary governors are retired people or councillors, most of whom will bring their politics with them.
You would think the MPs who made these suggestions would have known this already. Perhaps the pronouncement is another illustration of how out of touch many of them are with the real world.
There’s nothing wrong with what they are suggesting. But if they are serious, they are the people with the power to really change attitudes and force employers to give staff time to carry out their voluntary duties, rather than just making suggestions which will be largely ignored.
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