Experts at the School for Topical Nostrums claim a major break through. The calculations look fine. All that remains is to build and road test Sir Alan Steer’s WHEEL, a new and fascinating device confidently expected to revolutionise the nation’s schools.
The boffins say schools should band together to appoint social workers for unruly pupils and parent support groups, have a knock for knock transfer system for the really troublesome, and be prepared to buy in specialist support.
Old hands may be bewildered. Before Baker [BB] almost every local authority had a team of education social workers sharing their expertise and giving each other professional support. They had degrees or diplomas in social work or worked towards them. Based in schools, they attended relevant policy meetings in their schools, worked with a group of schools, and helped with the whole gamut of home-school problems in a neighbourhood they knew intimately.
But in the annual accounts these hands on workers appeared as an administrative on-cost. Far better, said politicians and heads, to cut the councils down to size and spend the money where it would really make a difference.
Now it seems the schools can’t manage on their own. They need partners, they need to buy and share special expertise. All this takes time and money. Heaven forbid, the consortia may have to manage the staff they share and find a little office to serve as a base. Telephone? Computer? Car? In-service? What else will the partners have to provide to get the job done properly? They may even need an accountant to record and apportion the costs.
How many wheels are likely to fall off this new limo before we INVENT a WHEEL which works as well as the old one?
Sic transit… What goes around, comes around.
Diogenes
edu-can-do 