A few days ago, the media rushed through the Executive Summary of the OECD report into welsh education, trying to make headlines before their competitors did.
Overall, the media rightly reported that the OECD study concludes that Wales is well behind other OECD nations, most notably in reading and mathematics, these being rather critical to living a life and finding a useful job.
The report highlights the lack of direction within the welsh system. This, despite the clear message that Wales is doing very, very badly, and that a clear direction is urgently required.
But, nobody really seems to have a clue. We're endlessly locked into 'well, Wales isn't like Finland', so we try to ignore everybody else's successes, whilst reinventing the wheel for ourselves - only to find it looks more like a square.
Accountability is highlighted in the report. The welsh education system is singularly incapable of accepting proper, transparent and fair accountability. Instead, the profession has ensured teachers and headteachers, LEAs and the education bods win Cardiff are all able to instantly wash their hands of any criticism from parents, carers or anyone below ministerial level.
That needs to change, because avoiding accountability is the first sign of a failing system, and one that is trying to keep the status quo to maintain face.
Have a look at the graphic on page 24 of the OECD report. It is, without any doubt, depressing, showing Wales bumming along the bottom of the pile. It is a terrible indictment of everyone within the welsh education system. Nobody can avoid responsibility for this result, yet everyone is trying to do just that.
Astoundingly - and this is a figure you won't readily find elsewhere - a full two-fifths (that's 40% to you and me) of primary school headteachers have been judged by Estyn to be inadequate. Read that again: 40%.
Yet, approach any headteacher with concerns or complaints, and you'' quickly be shown the door, or run through a ridiculous 'complaints process' that nobody has any interest in operating in the spirit of improvement and transparency. Instead, it's closed doors all the way, aided by nodding donkey governors who, all too often, are precisely those 'local worthies' alluded to by Michael Gove himself.
The real point that is missed - or is diplomatically blind-eyed by the OECD, is that the welsh education system is a bit like a Masonic lodge or a mafia gang. It is insular, self-interested and overwhelmingly defensive in its approach. It is a bunch of people who clam-up on the outside world. They are within the schools whilst you, the public, are kept firmly 'out there', where you belong and can't interfere. By following this path, proper scrutiny is unachievable, which is precisely why this path has been followed and reinforced for so long.
Indeed, the OECD report repeats the Estyn view that governors' ability to tackle change is "weak".
Only a strict regime of performance assessment, proper and meaningful parental engagement, and true accountability will do for our kids. Yet, there are today plenty within the system who will fight tooth and nail to avoid this coming about. They prefer to damage our kids' prospects than damage their reputations and careers.
I say to those people, 'get out!', because your failure is laid bare in the appalling, terrible outcomes of the system you operate.
