To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, to lose four education ministers in 24 hours looks more like carelessness than misfortune.
The carelessness in this instance is of course Boris Johnson’s, whose ongoing leadership crisis has resulted in Nadhim Zahawi’s elevation to chancellor, and the resignations of ministers Will Quince, Robin Walker and Alex Burghart.
It leaves the Department for Education facing a fresh bout of disruption as new ministers, led by newly-promoted Michelle Donelan, learn their briefs and sort out their priorities.
And what a lot there is to sort out. Centre stage is the schools white paper which sets out very ambitious targets for raising literacy and numeracy attainment by 2030, as well as the considerable challenge of restructuring the entire education system to become MAT-led.
