A North East teacher has launched a scathing attack on Ofsted, branding it a "failed project".
Daniel Kebede, president of the National Education Union (NEU) and a teacher in North Tyneside, said the Office for Standards in Education "is and always has been a failed project" and was "absent without leave during the pandemic".
Speaking at the NEU's annual conference in Bournemouth, he added that Ofsted was a "project that sends your workload rocketing and drives so much of the rot in education". "If what they did had any value they would prove it, but they have never published any evidence to prove that their inspections are accurate," he said, adding that at a time of "rocketing child poverty" the inspectorate had been given a funding boost.
Read More: Almost half of teachers in England plan to quit by 2027, union survey finds
"Ofsted were absent without leave during the pandemic. They were nowhere to be seen in our schools, and they were not missed," he added. Mr Kebede said that the "one thing that Ofsted can accurately measure is poverty", with schools in more affluent areas four times more likely to be awarded an "outstanding" grade than those serving disadvantaged communities.
In a survey of 1,788 NEU members, just 5% of teachers in English state schools said they believed the inspectorate led to improvements in the education system, while 4% said Ofsted was independent of Government and 5% said it was a reliable judge of standards. Three-quarters of respondents - 74% - said they associated Ofsted with "a huge amount" of "unnecessary" extra work, rising to 81% among nursery and primary teachers.
Around 56% of members said they spent over half their working hours on Ofsted preparation before an inspection, while 80% agreed that Ofsted should be abolished or radically reformed.
An Ofsted spokesperson said: "Parents and carers know that Ofsted acts in the best interests of children - and they value the work we do. Over the last 30 years, our work has helped raise standards across all the sectors we inspect. And, following the disruption and distress caused by the pandemic, that work is now more important than ever."
Should Ofsted be abolished? Let us know your views in the comments below
On Monday, the NEU passed a motion to establish a new commission investigating the reliability of Ofsted's judgements. Members also voted to create a new inspection system for schools based on "collaborative support".
A Department for Education spokesperson said: "Ofsted provides an essential, independent judgment of schools, colleges, children's homes and early years settings. Inspections are not only helpful for nurseries, schools and colleges in understanding how they are performing, but also to parents when making school choices, with Ofsted inspection judgments being a key factor in their decision making, alongside proximity and the ethos of a school."
