Parliament & Politics: Woodhead says some heads are obstructive

EDUCATION

CHRIS WOODHEAD, the Chief Inspector of Schools, yesterday echoed Tony Blair's attack on schools that rely on "a culture of excuses" to explain their failings.

Mr Woodhead said that he would not describe teachers refusing to change as "forces of conservatism", as the Prime Minister had, so as not to stray into party-political territory.

But he went on: "Substitute the words 'obstructiveness' and 'a culture of excuses' and I think we are talking about a minority of schools."

Mr Woodhead told the Commons Education Select Committee that a small proportion of schools blamed everyone else for their own failings. "They have a tendency to blame government's failure to provide enough resources. They blame parents for not producing intelligent enough children and they blame the collapse of Western civilisation as we know it. This is unacceptable and we have to continue to challenge that kind of attitude."

He said that if he had not driven out the forces of educational conservatism by the time he left his job, he and Ofsted would have failed.