The NAHT and ASCL have jointly written to Gillian Keegan expressing their members’ dismay at the comment she made on the Jeremy Vine show yesterday (5 September) when discussing RAAC concrete.
Keegan told presenter Jeremy Vine that ‘there’s 5 per cent of schools or responsible bodies that have not responded to the survey, now hopefully all this publicity will make them get off their backsides’.
The unions say they have been ‘overwhelmed with complaints’ from their members, and that the minister’s words ‘lack precision and professionalism’.
They calling for the education secretary to immediately and publicly ‘correct the record’ and apologise to members.
‘A failure to do so will be further interpreted as contempt for them and their efforts’, says the NAHT and ASCL.
The letter goes on to state, ‘The statutory position is clear – it is responsible bodies that are required to reply to the survey.
‘The imprecision of your phrase has led to the wide interpretation by the media and the members we represent that you meant individual headteachers.
‘As a high-ranking professional politician, it is reasonable for people to assume you will know how your words will be interpreted and especially after your remarks the day before that you would have been more careful than normal.
It adds, ‘Your remarks also failed to reveal the fact that many responsible bodies have attempted to return the survey but that the systems at the DfE have meant that it has been impossible, or that some bodies have been erroneously identified as not having made a return when in fact they have – a situation you acknowledged in the margins of yesterday’s meeting.’
‘It is now essential that you immediately and publicly correct the record and apologise to our members. A failure to do so will be further interpreted as contempt for them and their efforts.’
Keegan caught swearing over RAAC crisis
The letter comes days after the education secretary was caught complaining about not being thanked for doing a "f****** good job over the unsafe concrete crisis when her mic was still on following an interview with ITV News.
Keegan later apologised for her ‘choice language’.