'Never mind life advice from Gillian Keegan - I'd rather listen to Kevin Keegan'

19 August 2023 , 18:47

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Gillian Keegan (Image: PA)

It has come to something when I’d rather listen to Kevin Keegan than Gillian Keegan when it comes to dishing out life advice.

Ms Keegan – the sixth Education Secretary in a very short space of time – was on the airwaves this week talking about A-level results. I think, if I’m being kind, she was trying to help out people who might have not have done as well as they would have hoped. “What will people ask you in 10 years’ time?” said Ms Keegan, “They won’t ask you anything about your A-level grades in 10 years’ time.”

You can see what she was trying to do but it was so clumsy, negated so much effort these kids have made, there were calls for her to immediately apologise. She hasn’t. But never mind. In 10 months – never mind 10 years –no one will be asking who the Education Secretary was.

This year’s results are down but they were always going to be. The pandemic, of course. But underpinning that is the Government’s complete failure to look after our education system. Last year, 40,000 teachers resigned from state education. That’s almost 10% of the entire total. Vacancies have doubled, recruitment an issue, and staff sickness is through the roof.

There were calls for Keegan to immediately apologise (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)

There is also the widening inequality in the country. New stats show that there are 120,000 ­children – children – living in extreme poverty. Destitution. Which are just words but they mean families with no food, no furniture, no beds, no new clothes, no gas, no electricity. Now do your A-level coursework.

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Results reflect that. Poorer areas not doing as well. Disproportionately affected, not just by the pandemic but by 13 years of neglect by a set of people who have no real interest in levelling up unless it’s turning millionaires into billionaires. Sarah Atkinson, from the Social Mobility Foundation, says: “Every political party must now commit to closing the attainment gap.”

Spot on. (That means you as well, Labour. Stuff like, you know, getting rid of the two-child benefit cap.) Wishful thinking, I suppose. But we’ll see. Conference season soon, and a chance for both major parties to spell out what they’re going to do about this mess and all the other messes.

Meantime, well done if you got some good A-levels and, honestly, don’t worry if you didn’t. I promised life advice from Kevin Keegan, so here it is: “Everything I’ve done, I’ve done with enthusiasm and passion. “Everything I turn up to, I think I’m going to enjoy. I never look back, so I don’t have regrets.”

That’s the only Keegan you need to listen to. Words to live by.

Keir Mudie