McCrone Report

I was dismayed at the recent knee jerk publicity of the report of the Schools inspectors on the so called “McCrone report”, the national agreement with teachers first signed in 2001. The inspectors did not say 'nothing has been achieved', as many papers suggested. What it said was that lots has been achieved but there is still a long way to go, which is true but that's not the same as saying the agreement failed. That's like saying a team behind at half time has lost the game. The agreement paced itself. Not everything was to be done at once and some of the changes need training to go with them and so they will take time to have their effect. We live in such a “instant, just add hot water and stir” world that we expect things to happen over night or suddenly “the ba’s on the slates”. But real, systemic change takes time to happen and to be effective. I have no problem with accountability but what we need here is patience not polemic from those whose real objective is to run state education down for their own political ends.