Ed Balls stays on in education

June 5 2009

Commenting on the decision to keep Ed Balls on as Secretary of State for DCSF, Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Europe’s largest teaching union said;

“I am pleased that Ed Balls has stayed at the DCSF. There have been too many changes over the years for any real sense of continuity to develop in education.

“Although he looks like a veteran in comparison to the others who preceded him there is still much to do.

“Now that the highly turbulent reshuffle is over I hope the Secretary of State will devote all his attention to getting to grips with the real needs of schools and communities and not with ideological concerns about choice”.

“Splitting the Education Department in two was never a good idea. There should be one department to cover all sectors of education. History teaches us that the need to apply a joined up approach across the various phases of education is essential”.