Minister to visit Birmingham special school after building programmes gaffe
Jul 13 2010 by Jonathan Walker, Birmingham Post
Education Secretary Michael Gove has agreed to send a Minister to meet parents and teachers in Birmingham, after a special school became the latest victim of Government confusion over a cancelled rebuilding programme.
Hopes were dashed at Queensbury School in Erdington after it was told that multi-million pound rebuilding plans had been approved - and then scrapped.
It is one of 13 secondary schools in Birmingham which has been told long-awaited schemes, planned as part of a Government programme called Building Schools for the Future, have been stopped.
But the announcement descended into farce last week when Queensbury was named twice in a list of schools published by the Department for Education - once as a school which was unaffected by the change of policy and a second time as a school where building plans were cancelled.
The Government then issued a new list, which seemed to confirm that Queensbury’s proposals for a new premises on the site of its sister school, Kingsbury, would go ahead.
But it has now issued yet another list, this time stating that Queensbury’s proposals have been rejected.
The catalogue of errors was highlighted by Erdington MP Jack Dromey (Lab), who demanded answers in the House of Commons.
He said: “In his announcement to Parliament last week, a special needs school in my constituency of Birmingham Erdington was listed under two separate titles, one as stopped and one as unaffected.
“Hopes were raised, confusion then has been caused and hopes were shattered.
“Will the secretary of State agree to come to my constituency to meet with the head of Queensbury School and the sister school Kingsbury, who have a remarkable vision for a world-class centre of excellence catering for the children of Birmingham with special needs?”
Mr Gove told him: “I know we will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one later this week, in order to discuss the precise circumstances of the school he mentions, and I or one of my Ministerial team will certainly join him in a visit to that school to provide the head, the teachers and parents with all the information they need to ensure that in the future we do everything possible to support them and all the work they do.”
The error is just one of many made by the Department for Education, which included promising the Black Country authority of Sandwell that all its building schemes would go ahead - only for officials to admit the next day that nine had been cancelled.
This led to Black Country MP Tom Watson (Lab West Bromwich East) confronting Mr Gove in the Commons, shouting: “You’re a miserable pipsqueak of a man, Gove!”
Department for Education staff worked over the weekend to try to make sure the latest list of school projects was accurate.
