Bonfire of the calamities #1

Oh noes, cries The Indy, who will monitor the curriculum now?

The war on quangos has already claimed three education bodies – with the prospect of a fourth in the near future.

Although few tears have been shed for the demise of Becta, a body which advised schools on new technology, plans to scrap the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE), the profession's regulatory body, and the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Authority, which monitors the national curriculum, have provoked more controversy.

Presupposing there is a need for a National Curriculum, because if there isn't why would you need a body top monitor it? Even that assumes that teachers, department heads and head teachers can't do that in their own schools at least as effectively.

As for the GTCE, if teachers want it there's nothing to stop them setting it up, running it and, most importantly, funding it themselves. As with all quangos the ones that have value will be able to sell their services to the relevant sector, and if they can't then clearly they weren't offering any value in the fist place and should never have been funded by anyone, much less the taxpayer. Again, the GTCE's regulatory functions should be put in other hands, either head teachers or the Department for Education.

But it gets even better. See why The Indy think it should be kept.

The loss of the GCTE [sic] leaves teaching without a body to hold disciplinary hearings that can lead to the striking-off of incompetent teachers. Earlier this month, it was criticised in a BBC Panorama programme for holding too few disciplinary hearings, rather than too many.

Er... you don't think that maybe the fact that it almost never performed this function might perhaps be part of the reason for getting rid of it? You don't think that maybe it would be simpler and more efficient to have this function performed elsewhere?

...the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, has yet to announce how essential work done by these bodies should be handled.

Ooooooh, Sir, I know, Sir... Sir... Sir... it's head teachers again, isn't it, Sir?

Christ, it's not fucking rocket science. Just tell the heads they can actually run their schools again now, and more than that, make it clear that they're expected to.