It is most unfair of people to point out how dysfunctional the current Department for Education seems to be. Not just because many of the people who state that have probably never managed an education service in a pandemic, but because in my experience and in my opinion most departments of education in England have been dysfunctional. Why single out the current one?

I think the root of the problem is that departments of education are too concerned with the minutiae of education. We’d all be a lot better off, in my opinion, if Parliament took a much more hands-off approach, perhaps providing the appropriate frameworks and standards for things to be done, but not concerning itself with details.

I wrote about this in 2020 in an article entitled UPDATED! Should Governments Concern Themselves With Education Technology?, except that I really think that governments should hardly get involved in education at all. In other words, I don’t confine my comments and exasperation to education technology. Indeed, every time I read a headline stating there is going to be a new education policy, a feeling of terror creeps over me: what new insanity are we going to be subjected to? This has been happening to me now for at least thirty years.

I could cite lots of examples of (in my opinion) dreadful debacles caused by government interference, such as the National Curriculum, 1265 hours, NOF training, the Key Stage 3 ICT Strategy, the Literacy Hour, the Numeracy Hour, funding for schools on the basis of whether or not they had an e-safety policy in place (it didn’t need to be looked at) and, more recently, government involvement in laptop schemes.

Perhaps I shouldn’t be too damning, because not all of these have been wholly awful (especially when teachers made them work by ignoring the rules), but as I get older and, hopefully, a bit wiser, I am more and more inclined towards a laissez-faire approach that involves central government as little as possible.

So what led to these (I hope worthy) cogitations? As is my wont, I was glancing through some articles I wrote several eons ago, and one of them was about Ted Wragg. He was a columnist for the Times Education Supplement back in the days when it was a periodical worth reading. Always to the point, always bitingly satirical, he single-handedly kept at least half the teaching population sane. To give you a taste of his humour, I just looked in the introduction to a collection of his columns, and he is writing about a school with one part-time pupil that was subjected to a full Ofsted inspection. If that was true — and it sounds so ridiculous that I’m inclined to think that it was — it was Bonkers with a capital ‘b’.

What follows is the article I wrote when he passed away, and after that is a link to an article he wrote for The Guardian.

Ted Wragg dies

Published on Fri, 11 Nov 2005, 07:04

The UK-based educationalist and newspaper columnist Tedd Wragg has died suddenly after a heart attack following a run. He was 67. It is well-known that the first section most teachers turn to when the Times Education Supplement (TES) arrives in the staffroom on a Friday morning is the jobs section -- but surely the second most popular column must have been Ted Wragg's?

In an age where many people are too frightened to point out the absurdities of some official announcements and initiatives, for fear of career limitation, Ted Wragg not only spoke his mind but did so with humour and wit.

Sometimes, it's easy to start to wonder if, as those in high places seem to be losing their grip on sanity, or at least reality, whether the fault really lies with yourself. Ted's great gift was to make you realise that there was still some sanity, common sense and realism left in the world of education. In fact, for my own part I can say that there were times when his column made the difference between my sinking into  profound depression and adopting the attitude, "If I didn't laugh, I'd cry".

You can read about his illustrious career at the BBC's page, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/education/4424628.stm, where you will find a "short" CV (resumé).

Rest in peace, Ted, and condolences to your family, colleagues and friends.

And now here’s that Guardian article:

So 'creative teaching' is the new government idea? A bit tricky when teachers are too afraid to innovate, says Ted Wragg

See also:

21 Reasons That Education Technology Projects Fail

The Trouble With Government Education Technology Initiatives

STEM And Governmental Micromanagement

Should The Government Decide What Resources You Use To Teach Computing?