Ofsted boss: Brexit vote linked to poor school performance

The Chief Inspector of Schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, says the Government must make it a priority to improve the performance of failing schools in the north of England and the Midlands.
He says the issue is fuelling the sense of a divided nation.
Sir Michael says the failure to provide a good education may have contributed to the alienation and frustration expressed by some parents during the EU referendum.

The situation is very, very serious. If you look at Manchester, the city we’re in, nearly one in three schools [is] not good. In Liverpool, half are good. If you look at satellite towns, things are worse.
“It’s feeding into a sense that the people of Liverpool, Manchester and the North are not being treated fairly – that their children have less of a chance of educational success than people south of the Wash.
“And that’s feeding into a wider malaise that I sense with the Brexit vote, that actually this wasn’t just about leaving Europe, it’s about ‘our needs being neglected, our children are not getting as good a deal as elsewhere’.
“Parents want to see their children doing well; they want to see them going off to university; they want to see them getting a good job.
“Well, they have less of a chance of that in this city, in Liverpool and elsewhere, and that feeds into this sense of discontent in the North and in the Midlands.”
Sir Michael said addressing education must be a government priority.
He said: “If we have an educated workforce in the North, then that will feed into the wider economy in the North and the North will do well. It’s not doing well at the moment.”