Former Education Minister Gavin Williamson is getting a knighthood and some people are calling it ‘laughable’.
The news came last night, Thursday March 3, The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has awarded the 45-year-old South Staffordshire MP the prestigious honour, despite his less-than shining past in politics
Williamson is most commonly known – especially to begrudged students – as the man behind the COVID exam results fiasco.
Although Williamson may be thrilled with the news, others are less so, including Hillary Gyebi-Ababio, the NUS Vice-President for Higher Education, who called it ‘laughable’.
She took to Twitter to express her opinion on the matter, saying Williamson caused ‘havoc’ during his time as Education Minister.
Hillary went on to say in another Tweet: “Imagine dashing the hopes of countless numbers of students in the A-level mess up, appointing a catch up tsar (who did what exactly?) and sitting on your hands whilst students were going to food banks to find food AND you get rewarded??”
Others have commented in similar fashion.
What did Williamson Do For His Knighthood To Be Called ‘Laughable’?
Back in 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he oversaw the organisation of a new way to grade A-level students who had been unable to sit their exams.
The eventual system, a mix of computer algorithm and teacher assessments, created obviously unfair marks, especially for pupils in poorer areas and schools.
Williamson eventually announced a U-turn on the matter just 48 hours later, but the damage had been done to his popularity.
Then when Manchester United player Marcus Rashford was campaigning to help children on free school meals Williamson had an interview with The Evening Standard, claiming he’d had a Zoom call with the footballer.
In fact, Williamson had confused Rashford with the England rugby player Maro Itoje.
In the interview he told The Standard: “We met over Zoom and he seemed incredibly engaged, compassionate and charming but then he had to shoot off. I didn’t want to be the one that was holding him back from his training.”
The Standard reported that Williamson’s team later clarified he had not in fact met Rashford, but was instead talking about Itoje, the Saracens and England rugby player who has campaigned to improve access to laptops and the internet for children unable to attend school during the pandemic.