Yesterday Sir Kevan Collins quit his role as Bloke in Charge of Fixing Education Post-Covid. He was disgruntled at the mere £1.4 billion the government proposed to spend on resolving all education problems caused by the pandemic. He himself had done a good proposal, and reckoned the cost to be £15 billion.
I don’t see what he’s so upset about. Saint Rishi’s commitment to education is clear: he is offering almost 65% more than his flagship scheme spent on eating out in the pub. That this is less than 10% of what Sir Kevan wanted, and less than 1% per child of what the Netherlands is spending surely can’t be relevant.
Thinking about it… given Honest Boris’ favourite soundbite is ‘Levelling Up’, and that the best (or only) way to guarantee long-term improvement for an underprivileged area is long-term education and training to provide an attractive workforce to potential investors, perhaps more than ‘chips with your beer’ should be something to think about?