A new term for Kelly
Jessica Levy discusses the new Education Secretary’s swift rise to the Cabinet and her plans to focus policy on rights and responsibilities
Ruth Kelly, the new Secretary of State for Education and Skills, has kick-started her job with a zero-tolerance drive against disruptive pupils. A mother of four, Ms. Kelly told educationists at the annual North of England conference, in Manchester, that parents had the right to a “top quality education” for their children. But with this right comes the responsibility to make sure their children “behaved well and to help them learn”.
Ms. Kelly entered the Cabinet last month in the reshuffle prompted by David Blunkett’s resignation following controversy over his department’s involvement in the fast-tracking of a visa for Mr. Blunkett’s lover’s nanny. Ms. Kelly took over from Charles Clarke, who moved to the Home Office to replace Mr. Blunkett. A former education secretary himself, Mr. Blunkett came under criticism in his last weeks in office for comments he made to a biographer about the way other government departments were being run. Ms. Kelly must decide whether she agrees with David Blunkett that, since his time at the department, the government has “gone soft” on education.
It is widely believed that Ms. Kelly is unlikely to take a different line from her predecessor, Mr. Clarke, perhaps not least to offer some continuity to a department which has seen three shake-ups in just over two years. Estelle Morris resigned in autumn 2002 after feeling she had “not done well enough” in the position.
Ms. Kelly comes to the job with the decision about what to do with Mike Tomlinson’s report on reforming 14-19 education still hanging over the department. Ms. Kelly has, in the last month, also spoken about delivering choice in education. She has shown her support for the city academy scheme.
But Shadow education secretary, Tim Collins, has remained unconvinced. He has said that Ms. Kelly “must turn the Prime Minister’s rhetoric on schools choice into something approaching reality.”
At 36, Ms. Kelly is the youngest female Cabinet Minister the British government has ever had. With degrees from Oxford and LSE, she worked as an economics reporter for The Guardian before entering parliament in 1997.
Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lectures has described Ms. Kelly’s rise through the Labour ranks as “meteoric”. She has held positions as a parliamentary aide during the foot and mouth crisis, ministerial positions in the treasury and has contributed to Labour’s third term manifesto.
