The problem isn’t accountability. It is the ham-fisted way it is done

What a strange week it has been in the parallel reality of Ofsted. 
 
The inspectorate’s outgoing Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman, addressing the House of Commons education select committee, acknowledged (helpfully) that schools were dealing with huge problems in the wake of the Covid pandemic but then (unhelpfully) went on to say that she thinks “there’s a sense among schools that it’s unfair to be held to account publicly when they’re working so hard with such difficult issues.”
 
And then (even more unhelpfully), she added: “I’m not a policymaker, it’s for government to decide if it wants to change that whole framework of public accountability, but I think we’re feeling a bit of a push from the school sector for exemption from that framework.”
 
I’m not entirely sure what this means, but if the Chief Inspector’s sense is that schools do not feel they should be inspected or held publicly accountable, I don’t think that is the case at all. It isn’t being held accountable that is the problem. It is the ham-fisted way in which it is done.