When the senior chief inspector of education puts his name to a report which says that “a key test of the success of the teachers’

agreement must be its beneficial impact on young people and their learning”, we can only assume that he is ignorant of the history or is being deliberately provocative.

The first line of the agreement states it is an “agreement reached to improve the professional conditions of service and pay for teachers”.

That’s it. Nothing more.

Now, if Graham Donaldson wishes to judge the agreement on other criteria, that’s up to him, but he should not put his private agenda into the public domain as an official document.

The message the public received on the issue of the HM Inspectorate of Education report was that teachers have taken the money, done nothing for it and standards have not risen as a result.

Perhaps HMIE in general has forgotten that teachers are employees of local authorities, and as such are obliged to put into practice the policies and practices determined by those same authorities. And who has a great influence on which policies are currently pushed and promoted? Why, HMIE of course. Quis custodiet custodies?

It’s time teachers and schools stood up to the closed coterie of HMIE and its arrogant announcements.