“I think she has a very strong determination to deliver the Blair Government’s agenda,” says David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers. “I am very happy with the appointment but I know there will be difficult times ahead, with teacher shortages and the discussions on teachers’ workload.”Estelle Morris is widely acknowledged to be a safe pair of hands. No one can remember her making a gaffe during her time as School Standards minister. The nearest she came to it was during an address to the Girls’ School Association when she advocated a softer line in dealing with pupils caught in possession of illegal drugs.Speaking out strongly against automatic exclusion, she faced a barrage of criticism from the right-wing tabloids. However, her stance won her plaudits from headteachers who agreed that ­ while drug pushers should be expelled ­ pupils caught in possession should be given a second chance.There is no doubt that her political acumen has grown during her first four years as a minister. A colleague remembers an occasion during the early days of the Labour administration when Morris rushed over to join him and Stephen Byers, who was then David Blunkett’s number two. “We must do something about Chris Woodhead,” she is alleged to have said ­ an unthinkable utterance in those days of the new Blairite Britain.

Byers raised his eyes heavenwards as if to say “you’ve got a lot to learn”. Chris Woodhead was unsackable in those days because the Government had to show it was strong on standards. Morris would not be so “off message” today.There are two anxieties about her promotion. One is that, having been promoted from within the education department, she will lack the clout to fight her corner in the Cabinet because she has had no experience of any other government office David Hart disagrees. “I think that would be a very bad misreading of the situation,” he says. “I am sure she will receive strong backing from Number 10 given that education is such a priority.”The second anxiety is a sense that she will be more of a minister for primary and secondary schools than for higher education. This is born of the fact that she has been Schools Minister for four years and has therefore never made any pronouncements on universities and colleges.

(There may also be a touch of snobbery, a feeling that because she failed her A-levels ­ as she did ­ she is not really higher education material.) She will be trying hard to dispel this view; aides have already announced that she will publish a review of the options for higher education by the end of July.It seems, though, that some would relish a neglect of higher education. Alan Ryan, Warden of New College, Oxford, says: “I rather assume that all her interests will be in schools rather than universities Politicians don’t understand how the universities work. It will be a period of benign neglect, and I don’t mind that.”One thing is certain, though Estelle Morris is not someone who neglects anything. She lives and breathes education and will be busting a gut to make sure her department delivers on improving standards.r.garner independent.co.uk. One of Tony Blair’s themes in the election was how to turn ordinary Brits into entrepreneurs, people who aim high, seize their opportunities and contribute to the greater good of UK plc. He will be gratified, therefore, with a scheme at the University of Greenwich which tries to put black and ethnic minority graduates in a position to fulfil their dreams.Concern about racial discrimination in the workplace has been with us ever since the SS Empire Windrush docked at Southampton in 1948. It was given added impetus earlier this year when official figures showed that ethnic minority graduates had significantly lower employment rates than whites.