Boris Johnson is allegedly considering replacing Gavin Williamson as education secretary with Tory MP Kemi Badenoch, well known for her attacks on “woke” education campaigners.
Williamson had been criticized for his response to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, including for his chaotic changes to the exam system, and as such is expected to be replaced in the next cabinet reshuffle.
Kemi Badenoch, the equalities minister, has been rumored to be lined up for the role for some time now according to “multiple sources”, says The Times.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has also called for Williamson’s removal, claiming that the secretary has routinely failed UK children. He told The Guardian: “The question the government has to answer is: why was the attainment gap so big before? Why is it even bigger now? Some [schools] were testing very often and some not very often. It led to the widening and now yawning gap between private and state schools.”
In a desperate bid to keep his post, Williamson has allegedly been warning Tory MP colleagues that he “knows where the bodies are”.
Williamson has been under fire since last year’s A-levels fiasco that disrupted university placements throughout the country.
However, Badenoch also raised concern last year when she criticized “certain people” for calling for alterations to history curriculums following the Black Lives Matter movement.
Tory MPs suggests that campaigners wanted history to be taught “in a way that suggests good people [are] black people” and “bad people [are] white people”.
There have also been suggestions that the vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi, may also be a contender for the education secretary job.
The push to replace Williamson comes in the wake of a second consecutive year of grade inflation concerns as students bypass the typical A-level exams, leaving 45 percent of UK students with A or A* grades.
Kevan Collins, the government’s former education recovery boss, wanted that “growing inequality” in education may become a legacy of the Covid-19 crisis if no action is taken.
Collins added: “I don’t believe the recovery will happen naturally and I think, if we don’t do something tangible about it, we will have growing inequality in our education system.”
