Who will put out the ‘house fire’ in education?

Former Department for Education adviser Sam Freedman is a man with a good turn of phrase. But he surpassed himself with this observation on Rishi Sunak’s British Baccalaureate plan.

“The issue with the Bacc idea,” he said, “is not whether it might be a good proposal in theory but the absurdity of suggesting it now when everything is falling apart. It’s like turning up to a house fire and proposing redoing the kitchen.”

The ‘house fire’ in question is something approaching an existential crisis in our education system.

Teacher shortages are so severe – across so many subject areas – that the challenge is increasingly to get any qualified teacher in front of a class, let alone a teacher who is a subject specialist.