Headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh has quit as Social Mobility Commission chair, saying her controversial opinions “put the commission in jeopardy” and it is doing “more harm than good”.
Birbalsingh – Britain’s so-called “strictest headteacher” at Michaela Community School in London – was appointed to lead the commission in November 2021.
The outspoken leader has always courted controversy. While social mobility tsar, she was widely criticised after telling a parliamentary committee hearing that low uptake of physics among girls was because they would rather not do “hard maths”.
But her comments about shifting the social mobility focus away from people going to Oxbridge were inaccurately reported by a national newspaper, leading to a correction.
