Sir Michael Wilshaw has warned that declining secondary school performance and pupil attainment in Liverpool, Manchester and surrounding areas could pose a threat to the success of George Osbourne’s vision for a Northern Powerhouse.
The Northern Powerhouse will “splutter and die” if youngsters in Manchester and Liverpool lack the skills to sustain it, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw said in a speech today.
Three in 10 secondary schools in Manchester and 4 in 10 in Liverpool are judged by Ofsted to be inadequate or require improvement.
The proportion of Manchester’s pupils gaining 5 GCSEs grade A* to C, including English and mathematics, declined from 51% 2 years ago to 47% currently. In Liverpool the percentage fell from 50% to 48% over the same period.
In his Annual Report published in December, Sir Michael called England “a nation divided at age 11”, referring to the discrepancy between the performance of schools in the North and Midlands and those in the South. In a speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), Sir Michael said that the extent of this underperformance presents a very real risk to the government’s vision of a Northern Powerhouse.
He said: “Manchester and Liverpool are at the core of our ambitions for a Northern Powerhouse. They are the engines that could transform the prospects of the entire region. But as far as secondary education is concerned they are not firing on all cylinders. In fact they seem to be going into reverse.”
Comparing the performance of secondary schools in the capital with those in the North West’s 2 major cities, Sir Michael said: “Yes, London has advantages that other cities lack, but what of Liverpool or Manchester? Are you really telling me that they lack swagger and dynamism? That they cannot succeed in the way London has succeeded? These are the cities that built Britain. They pioneered a modern, civic education when students at certain other universities spent most of their time studying the New Testament in Greek”.
Sir Michael called on all those with power and influence to make a real difference in galvanising change and supporting much-needed improvements in secondary education across Manchester and Liverpool.
Ofsted’s Regional Director for the North West, Chris Russell, has echoed Sir Michael’s concerns in an open letter sent to all those responsible for overseeing education provision across Greater Manchester.
Read the full report at www.gov.uk