In Inghilterra, si dimette il Ministro dell’Istruzione Estelle Morris.

“ Non ho fatto come avrei dovuto”

La decisione presa in seguito allo scandalo delle valutazioni falsate nell’A-level, il test che devono affrontare gli studenti di scuola superiore per avere accesso all’università.

Non estranea all’ uscita della Morris dal Governo Blair anche l’avvenuta comunicazione, in questa settimana, dei risultati scadenti degli studenti di scuola primaria che, in lettura e aritmetica, non hanno raggiunto gli standard previsti.


Morris quits: 'I've not done as well as I should have'

Education secretary rejects Blair plea to stay
18-month stint ends after a series of gaffes

Patrick Wintour, Nicholas Watt and Lucy Ward


Thursday October 24, 2002 - The Guardian

Estelle Morris, the education secretary, sensationally resigned last night arguing that she was incapable of providing the right strategic management to run a big government department.

In an extraordinary confession, she also insisted: "I was not good at dealing with the modern media. I have not done the job as well as I should have done. "

Ms Morris, the most senior woman in the cabinet, told Tony Blair of her decision to resign on Tuesday lunchtime, and despite pleas from the prime minister, she insisted yesterday evening on going ahead with her decision to quit the cabinet after 18 months. She made the final decision after delivering a speech in Birmingham and discussing the issue with her closest colleagues.

In her resignation letter, she said she realised she had come to see herself as ineffective, or not as effective as the prime minister needed.

Downing Street insisted that the catalyst for her resignation, following a series of crises through the summer, was not the admission that she had promised to resign if the government failed to meet its literacy and numeracy targets for 11-year-olds.

She suffered greater political damage over the accusations of incompetently handling the A-level exams fiasco, leading to the resignation of Sir William Stubbs, the head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA).

She admitted to friends to suffering sleepless nights over some of her recent decisions, including her ability to run the department, with its portfolios beyond schools such as universities, early years education skills and the media.

"If I am really honest with myself I was not enjoying the job. I could not accept being second best. I am hard at judging my own performance. I was not good at setting the priorities. I had to know I was making a difference, and I do not think I was giving the prime minister enough, " she said.

Her resignation will be a severe blow to Labour 's claims to be turning round Britain 's schools. It also underlines the huge pressures imposed on front-rank politicians in the modern intrusive media age.

Many in the teaching profession deplored her decision to quit, praising her knowledge and commitment to education. The shadow education secretary, Damian Green, claimed her departure was a symbol of the government 's failed education policy.

Downing Street said there would be a limited reshuffle inside the cabinet today. The most likely candidate to take over is Charles Clarke, the party chairman and a tough minded former education minister with a knowledge of the civil service. The schools minister David Miliband has been ruled out as too new to government.

The decision to resign is a personal tragedy for Ms Morris who taught in a Coventry comprehensive for 18 years. She was promoted to the cabinet following the election after three years as schools minister.

In her resignation letter she said: "In many ways I feel I achieved more in the first job than in the second. I've learned what I 'm good at, and also what I am at less good at. I 'm good at dealing with the is sues and in communicating to the teaching profession. I am less good at strategic management of a huge department and I am not good at dealing with the modern media. All this has meant that with some of the recent situations I have been involved in, I have not felt I have been as effective as I should have be, or as effective as you need me to be. "

She was regarded as sincere, passionate and more emollient to the teaching unions than her predecessor David Blunkett, one of her great champions.

It was widely assumed that Ms Morris would ride out the storms, but the Tories appeared to deliver a final blow this week when Damian Green proved that she had misled parliament on the issue of literacy and numeracy targets. It emerged that in 1999 she had told the Commons she was bound by the commitment, first given by David Blunkett in 1997, that she would quit if the government failed to meet its literacy and numeracy targets.

A year ago, by which time she had been promoted to education secretary, Ms Morris insisted to the Commons education select committee that she had "never said " she would resign. Friends said that she had forgotten she had associated herself with the commitment to resign. The government announced on September 26 this year that it had failed to meet the targets.

Eamonn O 'Kane, NASUWT general secretary, said he was "deeply sorry " that she had re signed. He added: "She is the victim of a despicable campaign by the Conservative party which has used every de vice to try to undermine her.

Fiona Stubbs, daughter of Sir William, who quit the QCA, said she was glad Ms Morris had resigned. "It is a good day and justice has been done to my father. " Sir William, however, said last night: "I 'm sorry to hear this news. It comes as a surprise. " He had sent a message to her expressing his regret.