Theresa May's Mask Slips in Grammar Schools Discussion

After Monday’s announcement that Article 50 will be triggered on 29^th March, and before the horrifying scenes that unfolded around Westminster Bridge and Parliament Square on Wednesday afternoon, Theresa May had a brief window of opportunity in which to focus on running the country.

The NHS might be in crisis and the Scots may be making a dash for the Second Referendum lifeboats, but Prime Minister’s Questions at noon on Wednesday gave Theresa May the opportunity to promote her pet project: the repeal of a 1998 law outlawing the building of new grammar schools.

Jeremy Corbyn, these days the only leader operating out of North London capable of making Arsene Wenger look popular, pressed the Prime Minister on the wisdom of spending £320 million to open the floodgates for new grammars, when her government’s funding squeeze has already imperilled the finances of some 9,000 state schools. Reciting a letter from Eileen, a headteacher who has seen her staff reduced to purchasing their own stationery for primary school classes, it was a well-directed line of questioning from Corbyn, who looked re-energised by the latest round of internecine squabbling within the Labour Party.

Theresa May set out her vision for education on Wednesday

With Corbyn pressing the Prime Minister on whether budget cuts would result in “larger class sizes, shorter school days, or unqualified teachers”, May pointed to grammar schools as one of the “choices” that will enhance opportunities “for every child”.

After the Leader of the Opposition converted an open goal by querying the value for money of new grammars when existing schools are struggling to afford pencils and notebooks, May hit back that Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary and Shadow General Attorney had both sent their children to private school, while Corbyn himself had benefited from a grammar school education. In the Prime Minister’s eyes, this was “typical Labour – take the advantage and pull up the ladder behind you”.

May’s response was at first glance a stinging retort, and was cheered by the Tory benches, but her lunging attempt to expose Labour hypocrisy actually served to expose the utter folly of expanding the grossly outdated grammar school model.

Her tone, focusing on the “the advantage” of private and selective schools, removed the pretence that these schools can function as part of a “diverse” and universal suite of education options. Her words cleared the smokescreen of parental choice, and laid bare the fundamentally elitist agenda of her proposed reforms: grammar and private schools – with their advantages in teaching quality, funding and academic prestige – are for the parliamentarian class, whether they happen to be coloured red or blue. All other schools are to be consolation prizes.

Corbyn noted that even former Education Secretary Nicky Morgan (by comparison a progressive rose between the retrograde thorn thickets of Michael Gove and Justine Greening) couldn’t bring herself to support the proposals of her party, noting in The Guardian that “all the evidence is clear that grammar schools damage social mobility”.

More than this, however, May’s personal slights against the Labour frontbench offer a preview of British society once grammars have been reintroduced to mainstream British education: a new dividing line of privilege between the “academic ” (officer class) and the “vocational / technical” (proletarian) streams of schooling. It will be a society in which the middle class grammar school students will progress smoothly to Britain’s elite universities, accompanied by a cohort of working class quota-fillers for the PR managers to focus on, while the rump population can quietly shift to second-class schools and pursue second-class qualifications in preparation for second-class careers.
     

With contemporary Britain already bitterly divided along economic, regional and cultural schisms, the temptation to further divide the population by educational background must be resisted.   

Karanka Suffers Mentor Mourinho's Fate as Third Season Syndrome Bites

As they slumped to a deflating, demoralising 2-0 defeat at home to Manchester City, Aitor Karanka’s Middlesbrough side had finally come full circle. Just over two years after a famous, fully deserved FA Cup win at the Etihad marked the high point of the Basque manager’s reign, Boro crashed out of the cup against the same team, by the same scoreline. Four days later, Karanka is out of a job.

Sunday’s loss at the Riverside felt heavier, more comprehensive than the eventual two-goal margin suggested, with Boro bamboozled by the swashbuckling speed and skill of City’s Leroy Sane, David Silva and Raheem Sterling. On home soil, Boro mustered just 31% possession. Their beleaguered goalkeeper, Brad Guzan, was named man of the match. Top scorer this season with just seven goals, Alvaro Negredo replaced injured January signing Rudy Gestede in the first half, only to turn in another study in isolation as Boro’s sole striker.

Aitor Karanka left Middlesbrough on Thursday

Such anaemic attacking performances had become the norm under Karanka, with Middlesbrough’s failure to score in each of their last four league fixtures contributing to the club’s slide to 19^th in the Premier League table. Boro still boast the fifth-meanest defence in the top flight, even in spite of a winless run stretching back to before Christmas, but the side’s lack of menace in attack eventually convinced Steve Gibson that Karanka was no longer the right manager to stave off relegation to the Championship.

While Gibson will have thought long and hard over the decision to replace Karanka, there is a certain inevitability to the former Real Madrid assistant manager’s departure in his third full season on Teesside. Indeed, Karanka’s reign at Middlesbrough has clear echoes of the problems his friend and mentor, Jose Mourinho encountered in his third seasons at Real and in his two spells at Chelsea. Although played out on different stages, the narrative arc of promising beginning, glorious middle and fractious ending can be seen in each of these three-act tenures.

Mentor: Karanka was assistant to Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid

Taking over from Tony Mowbray at 16^th-placed Boro in the November of 2013, Karanka tightened up the defence and steered the side to the safety of 12^th place in Championship table at the end of the season. He began to impose a physical, but nonetheless possession-based playing style on the team, too, exemplified by the January signings of towering centre back Daniel Ayala and portly playmaker Lee Tomlin.

It wasn’t until Karanka’s side had their first pre-season under their belt, however, that the side really started to sparkle. Of the Spanish Armada signed in the summer of 2014, only Kike Garcia would shine on Teesside, but Karanka’s other signings proved astute at Boro romped to 4^th place in the Championship. Adam Clayton added bite to the midfield alongside the craft of Grant Leadbitter, while Chelsea loanee Patrick Bamford was a revelation. A lightweight but wonderfully deft forward, the 21-year-old Bamford scored 17 league goals and had a hand in many more on his way to Championship Player of the Year. Boro’s lack of Premiership guile would be cruelly exposed in a 2-0 play-off final defeat to Norwich City, but Karanka’s first full season had brought the good times back to the Riverside.

Patrick Bamford led Boro to the play offs in Karanka's first season

Mourinho’s first-season successes at Chelsea are well-documented, with a league title in 2004-05 and a third-place finish in 2013-14, but he also made a promising start with Karanka as his assistant manager at Real Madrid in 2010-11. Succeeding Manuel Pellegrini, Mourinho led Los Merengues to victory in the Copa del Rey, ending a three-year trophy drought in the process, although a 5-0 league hammering to Barcelona revealed the gap still to be bridged between the two sides.     

The similarities between Karanka and Mourinho’s second seasons are similarly striking, with notable triumphs for the two managers in Madrid and Middlesbrough alike, as well as in West London. In Karanka’s second full season, his Boro side went a step further than his first campaign, claiming automatic promotion as runners-up in the Championship. The defence, in the Mourinho mould, was nigh-on impregnable as Ben Gibson emerged as a perfect partner for Ayala in the back line. There were memorable moments, too, with a 3-0 win at Brighton in December a particular a highlight, as Boro ended their hosts’ unbeaten record in some style.  

Boro achieved promotion in Aitor Karanka's second season

However, it could be said that even as he steered his team to promotion, Karanka’s faults were already beginning to emerge. With Bamford and Tomlin both trying their luck in the Premier League, goals, flair and creativity were at a premium, as Boro managed to score five fewer goals than the previous campaign but still finish higher in the table. Indeed, no side in the Championship’s top six scored fewer than Middlesbrough that season.

The manager’s signings began to become increasingly erratic, too, with puzzling continental prospects (Julian de Sart and Kike Sola, anyone?) linking up with grizzled Championship veterans such as Jordan Rhodes and David Nugent. Only Gaston Ramirez, brought in on loan from Southampton in January, was an unqualified success in adding seven goals from midfield.

Underwhelming: Kike Sola failed to make an impact on Teesside

Most troublingly, there were signs of underlying unrest on the training ground and in boardroom, with Karanka storming out of training to“consider his future” and leaving Steve Agnew to manage the team away to Charlton Athletic.

While Karanka did return to win promotion with Middlesbrough, Jose Mourinho’s second seasons have been similarly successful, although often tinged with the same grinding pragmatism. Despite winning titles in both of his second seasons at Chelsea, it is worth noting that in both of his second seasons at Stamford Bridge, his side have been “Champions elect” by Christmas before slowing down considerably on the final straight. The Frank Lampard-inspired 2005-06 vintage saw their lead over Manchester United cut by half in an awful March, while the Hazard-Costa axis of 2013-14 had a similar late-season wobble punctuated by draws and scrappy victories, as the January addition of Juan Cuadrado curtailed the fine form of Willian and Oscar.

In Mourinho’s defence (no pun intended), his second season at Real Madrid was more or less faultless: a La Liga title won with record totals in points and goals, and denied a place in the Champions League final only by the iron law of Bayern Munich winning a penalty shoot-out.

Mourinho, Ronaldo and co romped to the La Liga title in 2011-12

If the Real Madrid exception proves the rule, it’s now possible examine the point where Karanka and Mourinho’s teams really fall apart: the third season.

In Karanka’s case, it is more excusable, with Middlesbrough moving up to the Premier League and lacking the resources of the league’s biggest spenders. Even discounting Boro’s relative lack of financial muscle in the top division, however, the Spanish coach has made some unusual signings and transfers throughout this campaign. From summer’s sale of rangy winger Albert Adomah to Aston Villa, to the recent reticence to play Ayala since his return from injury, Karanka has made a number of odd calls.

Influential: but Albert Adomah was sold after promotion

Perhaps the most egregious omissions are those of Bamford, who re-signed on a permanent deal in January, and Ramirez. While Negredo remains a dangerous finisher in the penalty box, he has recently been starved of service, with only the erratic Adama Traore and the static Cristhian Stuani for support. Asked about Bamford’s absence recently, Karanka only commented that he needed “18 fighters” for matchdays, which makes the initial decision to purchase the talented, but rather laconic forward hard to explain.

Similarly to his mentor, Karanka also found himself at odds with the club’s ownership in his third season. He recently bemoaned the lack of investment in the squad, despite Gibson sanctioning January moves for Bamford and Gestede, who cost £5.5 million and £7 million respectively.

In the third season of Mourinho’s first spell at Chelsea, the problem was more with who the Stamford Bridge hierarchy did bring in, rather than who they failed to. Andriy Shevchenko, a personal favourite of Roman Abramovich, rocked up about three years past his devastating peak, while young stars Salomon Kalou and John Obi Mikel largely flattered to deceive. Khalid Boulahrouz, meanwhile, didn’t even manage to deceive.

Frosty: Mourinho struggled to get the best out of Andriy Shevchenko

Mourinho added an FA Cup in 2006-07 but Chelsea lost out to Manchester United in a tight title race, unable to keep pace with the firepower of Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. By September, he had departed in the wake of a 1-1 Champions League draw with Rosenborg in front of a half-full Stamford Bridge.

At Real Madrid, Aitor Karanka looked on as his mentor’s third season unravelled into trophyless catastrophe, with the infamous eye-poke on Tito Vilanova a particularly embarrassing nadir for club and manager alike. Even Real's own players felt the Portuguese’s ire in his final season at the Bernabeu, with Pepe slammed in the press and replaced in central defence by a 19-year-old Raphael Varane after he dared to question the wisdom of dropping club legend Iker Casillas.

John Terry was scapegoated in similar fashion after Chelsea made a poor start to their title defence in 2015-16, with Mourinho slipping into a deep paranoia in towards the end of his second spell at Stamford Bridge, accusing his squad of “betraying” him before eventually departing in December. Referees, opposition managers and club physio Eva Carneiro were all blamed for defeats, with Mourinho keen to look anywhere except the mirror when apportioning blame.

Departed: but Karanka's replacement can still keep Boro up 

While the symptoms of third season syndrome have brought the same managerial morbidity to Aitor Karanka as suffered by his mentor Mourinho, Middlesbrough do at least have a chance of retaining their place in the Premier League. Sitting just three points behind 17^th-placed Crystal Palace, and with a superior goal difference to most of their relegation rivals, whoever takes charge of Boro for the remaining 11 games of the season will feel confident of securing survival after reviewing the fixture list. Home games against Burnley, Sunderland and a comfortably mid-table Southampton look eminently winnable, as do trips to Swansea and Hull.

If the shackles that seemed to grip the side in the last months of Karanka’s tenure can be loosened, Boro might be able to start planning dreaming of how to avoid their own third season syndrome in the top flight.