Gillian Keegan - Education Secretary to teach holohoax in crumbling schools

[yankeedoodle]

Gillian Keegan is Education Secretary in Britain, and, in recent days, she has become quite controversial because of her handling - or, more specifically, mishandling, or not handling - a problem of crumbling concrete in schools that make schools unsafe.  This can be seen in the first article from 4 September 2023.

Then, take a look at the second article from 12 September 2023, which reports that Gillian Keegan had enough free time during the concrete crisis that she is ignoring to give a speech to a bunch of jews, telling them that "All children should learn about Holocaust horrors." 

And, note that, with concrete in schools crumbling, the jews brag in the second article that "The government has pledged millions of pounds to the Holocaust Educational Trust so that it can continue its work in schools and other organisations."

Obviously, it is more important to Keegan for students to learn about the holohoax than it is for them to have safe schools.

Gillian Keegan apologises for swearing over school concrete crisis
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-66709282

The education secretary has apologised for her language after being caught swearing on mic as she expressed irritation over the concrete crisis.

Having finished an interview with ITV, Gillian Keegan used the f-word as she asked "does anyone ever say you've done a good job because everyone else has sat on their arse and done nothing?"

In a later interview she said she was sorry for her "off-the-cuff" remark.

She added it was driven by irritation at a reporter's questions.

"He was making out it was all my fault," she said adding: "It is frustrating because we are doing everything we can to take a leading position, to be on the front foot."

"I worry about this. I haven't slept all night worrying about this," she said.

She said she was also frustrated that some questionnaires sent to schools about their buildings had not yet been returned.

Asked if she was accusing schools of sitting on their "arse", Ms Keegan insisted her comments were not aimed at anyone "in particular".

She also said she was not expecting to be thanked personally for her work but praised her department for taking a "leadership role".

During the initial interview, the education secretary was pushed on whether the government had done enough to fix the problem of crumbling concrete - also known as reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) - in school buildings.

More than 100 schools have been fully or partially closed due to the risk.

Ms Keegan said local authorities and multi-academy trusts had always had the responsibility for maintaining the buildings.

She added it was "not the job" of the Department for Education to maintain school buildings but it had chosen to contact schools in order to have information on RAAC collected centrally.

She said that following a collapse in a Kent school in 2018, the department had sent warnings to "the people responsible".

A Downing Street source said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was satisfied with Ms Keegan's apology. "I think what will be at the forefront of parents' minds is the situation of their school, and the government's focus today has been on providing further transparency," a spokesman added.

"What the public will continue to find is that in the vast majority of cases, their child's school is not affected."

Labour's leader Sir Keir Starmer said ministers had "dropped the ball... instead of coming out and saying this is what we going to do to fix the problems, you've got members of the Cabinet trying to blame other people".

The Liberal Democrat's education spokesperson Munira Wilson said: "Expecting people to thank her when children are being taught in classrooms at risk of collapse shows Keegan must be living on another planet."

In the House of Commons, where Ms Keegan was making a statement about RAAC, Labour MP Dame Diana Johnson joked that if the education department needed more money it could install a swear box in the office.

During her interview, Ms Keegan also defended going on holiday at the end of August when the crisis was beginning to unfold. She said she had taken meetings while on her break in Spain and had returned "as soon as I was needed".

"I'm on duty wherever I am. Occasionally you have to make some time for an elderly person's birthday - in this case my dad, who I adore."

Her interview came at the end of a morning during which the government had been criticised for decisions it made over funding provided to schools.

Jonathan Slater, a former senior civil servant in the education department, said that the government had halved the budget for school repairs in England in 2021.

He said the government had initially agreed to fund work, including fixing RAAC issues, in 100 schools, however, this was reduced to 50 schools. Mr Sunak was chancellor at the time.

Mr Sunak said it was "completely and utterly wrong" to suggest he had overseen budget cuts that were now leading to issues in the structural integrity of school buildings.

He added said that 95% of the 22,000 schools in England "won't be impacted" and that the "bulk" of schools yet to be identified as having an issue would be known in the coming weeks.




'All children should learn about Holocaust horrors', says Education secretary Gillian Keegan
The Conservative cabinet minister also said she became interested in the Holocaust after reading The Diary of Anne Frank
https://www.thejc.com/news/politics/all-uk-children-should-learn-about-the-holocaust-says-education-secretary-gillian-keegan-3pvMXW8FtC1J6jBlTSlxnx

The government has pledged millions of pounds to the Holocaust Educational Trust so that it can continue its work in schools and other organisations.

Speaking at the HET annual fundraiser at the Roundhouse in Camden, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan told nearly 700 guests: "I am proud that [the Department for Education] has funded the [HET] Lessons from Auschwitz programme, enabling young people to see for themselves the scars of this terrible episode in human history. We will continue to invest [in HET] in 2024 to 2025, providing at least £2.2 million of funding."

Since 1999, over 41,000 students and teachers have taken part in the Holocaust Educational Trust's Lessons from Auschwitz project, visiting the Nazi concentration and death camp and attending seminars.

Thousands of the students have gone on to become HET ambassadors, sharing their experiences and knowledge with their peers.

Keegan, who also pledged to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau in the coming year, said that she initially became interested in the Holocaust as a child after reading The Diary of Anne Frank. "The power of that book, the power of that story, that someone a few years older than me could experience such horror. It gave me a unique insight into what had happened through the eyes of a child."

Paying tribute to the work of HET, Keegan, whose husband Michael is trustee of Chichester Holocaust Memorial Day, said: "You help people learn and you tell these stories and it's almost impossible to state the importance of that because we should not forget the Holocaust.

"It began not with mass killings, not with concentration camps, but in the streets, in the classroom, in the workplaces of Europe. This is where the poisonous words and the passive acceptance of discrimination became the norm, where ordinary people just like us chose not to stand up, but to stand by."

Expressing that she was "proud" to support the building of the UK Holocaust Memorial Learning Centre next to Parliament, Keegan said that "nothing sticks with me as much as an experience from earlier this year when I had the privilege to speak at an event [...] alongside [Holocaust survivor] Mala Tribich. Hearing her stories of the displacement, the ghettos, the hiding, the camp – the stories she tells in our schools all the time - that left a mark on me."

Acknowledging that "sadly, one day, these events will move out of our living memory", Keegan stressed that "in our schools, we need our children to know and to understand what humanity is capable of and the importance of speaking out against intolerance".

Much of the evening was dedicated to the memory of Mala's brother, Sir Ben Helfgott MBE, honorary patron of HET, and other Holocaust survivors, who have died in the past few years, including Zigi Shipper BEM, Freddy Knoller BEM and Gena Turgel.

CEO Karen Pollock told the guests: "For many years, you have attended our events and heard of an approaching, critical, juncture - that the survivors we so love and depend on are becoming fewer and frailer. Tonight, it feels like we have hit that juncture.

"When the Holocaust is no longer in living memory, we will need to work ever harder to ensure it remains as relevant and accessible for young people as it is today."

The evening was compered by broadcaster and barrister Rob Rinder and actress Louisa Clein, both descendants of Holocaust survivors.

The evening started with a dramatic presentation from the National Youth Music Theatre, who performed Wiegela, a song by Ilse Weber, who was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944.

Also speaking on the night were HET ambassador historian Laurence Rees and Mala Tribich, who said: "It is very emotional to be here without my brother Ben, who was at the forefront of convincing people of the importance of Holocaust education."

"As a Holocaust survivor, I know what happens when people believe the unbelievable. It is so worrying to see conspiracy theories are on the rise in 2023. Thank you, HET, for continuing your important work and teaching tolerance."

The Trust's chairman Craig Leviton said: "At its roots HET is about the survivors. It is about learning from those who were eyewitnesses to horrific historical events, it is about learning from survivors who provided so much inspiration and inter-generational knowledge. And we do this to try to make society a better more tolerant place".

As well as the secretary of state for education, the dinner was attended by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Lucy Frazer, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, Higher Education Minister Robert Halfon and Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves. The Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis was also in attendance.

Other guests included TV personalities Natasha Kaplinsky, Tracy-Ann Oberman and Rachel Riley.