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Woodhead: 'I am paid to challenge mediocrity'

The House of Commons' Education Select Committee's report into 'The Work of Ofsted', published on Monday, says that Mr Woodhead should improve his relationship with the teaching profession and calls for the Office for Standards in Education to be made more accountable.

But Mr Woodhead rejected the criticism, saying "I am paid to challenge mediocrity, failure and complacency" whenever and wherever his inspectors come across it in schools.

While praising the day-to-day work of the inspection service, the all-party parliamentary committee has urged Mr Woodhead to pay more attention to the impact of his often outspoken comments on the morale of the teaching profession.

The report recommends that in future the chief inspector should be "concerned to improve morale" and "promote confidence" among teachers. The committee's chairman, Malcolm Wicks, says that while Mr Woodhead's comments should be clear, they should not be "intemperate".

"The Select Committee feel strongly that low morale among teachers inhibits the drive to raise standards. The chief inspector can best contribute to educational standards by ensuring inspection of schools is positive and purposeful."

But Mr Woodhead said that if inspections found weaknesses it was Ofsted's duty to make this known. "There's no point at all in having a school inspection system if it gives praise where it isn't due."

The way to improve morale, according to Mr Woodhead, was to improve standards in schools, a process in which Ofsted inspectors had an important role.

Although backing Mr Woodhead's right to speak out on education issues, the report makes clear that any opinions should be substantiated with facts.

Teachers' unions have long argued that many of Mr Woodhead's most trenchant criticisms of teachers - such as saying 15,000 teachers were incompetent - were not backed up with sufficient evidence.

The report was welcomed by Nigel de Gruchy, General Secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, who said the message to Mr Woodhead was "reform or resign. And when you make public statements make sure you do so on the basis of evidence and not just personal prejudice".

However the allegations and counter-claims about Mr Woodhead's private life and his relationship with a former pupil are not addressed in the report.

Other recommendations include the reduction of the period of notice of inspections to the "shortest period that is practical", with the possibility of unannounced inspections.

The report also suggests that the Office for Standards in Education needs to have greater accountability and proposes a 'board of commissioners' to which Mr Woodhead would be answerable.

While the report makes suggestions for improvements in the style and structure of Ofsted, it concludes that the schools watchdog is successfully carrying out its task in assessing standards in schools.

The committee concludes that "no case can be made for radically changing the inspection system. Pupils and their parents can benefit from Ofsted's inspection of schools".

But there is no immediate likelihood of ministers backing the report's calls for a new supervisory board.

In her submission to the all-party committee's report, the School Standards Minister, Estelle Morris, expressed her satisfaction with the existing arrangements and gave little encouragement to calls for changes to Ofsted's structure.

In an initial response to the report, the Education Secretary, David Blunkett, said that the report endorsed the achievements of the chief inspector and Ofsted in supporting the government's efforts to raise standards in schools.

Chris Woodhead has also shown little enthusiasm for a supervisory body, arguing that he was already answerable to parliament through the Education Select Committee and the prime minister.

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