Education Minister Graham Cregeen is confident the Isle of Man’s education system has a strong future. Here, in an interview that took place before last week’s incendiary report published by the NASUWT, the minister discusses with PAUL SPELLER the frustration he already felt at the union and also looks back on tempestuous spells in office as both the Community, Culture and Leisure Minister and chairman of the Post Office.

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HIS political history has seen him in conflict with bus drivers and board directors, but Education Minister Graham Cregeen foresees a rosier future.

The former Isle of Man College lecturer has a positive outlook for his department. The much-vaunted Education Bill is being touted as the panacea for perceived ills. It is due to appear for consultation later this year.

Not everyone is so upbeat, however. Shortly after it was revealed there were 37 teaching posts unfilled, union NASUWT claimed that education had, in fact, suffered a 29 per cent cut in funding, in real terms, since 2010

The minister does not hide his annoyance with the union, its general secretary Chris Keates and North-West representative Damian McNulty - something that will only increase after our interview.

’The NASUWT put out we were in crisis in the Isle of Man,’ Mr Cregeen states. ’What got me was this was a national representative who I have never even met.

’For the Isle of Man to be in the same situation as the south of England, we would have to have about 87 posts (unfilled). We have about 37 posts. Some of those are part-time. A couple of weeks later we were down to 31. It is all dependent on the time you look at it.’

He concedes that more needs to be done to attract teachers to the Isle of Man, with its higher cost of living, when pay packages are linked to the UK.

’This is a good environment to teach in,’ he insists. ’What we have been doing is working with the teaching unions with regard to pensions.’

The positive picture his department is keen to paint was damaged last week, after our interview has taken place, when the NASUWT lit a firestorm with its report containing dramatic - and disputed - claims about behaviour problems.

The department was clearly taken aback. The other teaching unions circled the wagons, in support of the DEC, as the validity of the survey was questioned, both in terms of methodology and motivation.

Mr Cregeen himself later queried why the issue was not raised at the most recent of the regular meetings the DEC holds with local union officials, including from the NASUWT.

It appears generally accepted there have been isolated incidents of serious concern, if not to the extent the union is suggesting. The suspicion is that the level of the problem lies somewhere between the two perspectives.

The department might be tempted to conduct its own, wider survey of teachers.

Up until last week, from the outside, at least, the Department of Education and Children has appeared a happier place in the last two years.

It is probably just as well, following the tumultuous stint of Peter Karran as minister after the 2011 election that saw the closure of the state-run pre-schools, teaching redundancies and the casting aside of the Family Library, all apparently to stave off tuition fees that came in anyway.

After that spell, there was an air of defensiveness that lingered in the air at the department for longer than was healthy. It appears, genuinely, to be less so now, aside from the escalating quarrel with the NASUWT. The healing process seemed to being under Mr Cregeen’s predecessor Tim Crookall.

The department is planning to improve the pre-school provision, in conjunction with the private sector.

But Mr Cregeen does not take the opportunity to condemn Mr Karran for axing the pre-schools. He agrees it was ’rushed’ but also points out, as did Mr Karran, they were not available universally.

One of the crucial changes set to come in will see the pre-schools having to meet standards set by the DEC. At the moment, nursery and private sector pre-school provision is subject to Department of Health and Social Care regulation.

’We are talking to the providers,’ he says. ’We are also going to be doing a survey across the island and seeing where there is any lack of provision and also to see whether we can use any of our school environments.

’We have got some very good pre-schools, but I think this is going to give them all a clear direction.’

The Howard Quayle administration seems to have approached education with gusto and, if the pledges of the Programme for Government are fulfilled, the commitment to early years and also to lifelong learning will be welcomed.

It may mean some upheaval while it happens, however, and it will require Mr Cregeen to call upon his diplomatic skills to ensure that parents, teachers, and everyone else with an interest in education to travel with him on the journey.

Those diplomatic skills are being tested right now by the NASUWT, but it is not the first time he has found himself at loggerheads with a union.

His spell as Community, Culture and Leisure Minister saw him in a fierce confrontation with the Unite union that saw bus drivers go on strike and, at one point, children take the steam train to school.

Unite accused the DCCL of trying to cut drivers’ wages, unfairly. Mr Cregeen insists he had to find savings in the department.

The issue landed on his in-tray just as he sat at the minister’s desk for the first time.

’I spoke to the unions about this and said, "If you can come up with other ways I am open to suggestions." Unfortunately, nobody came up with any other suggestions.

’My door was always open and I was always prepared to talk to people about it.’

The method used, however, to terminate drivers’ contracts and offer new ones on less favourable terms, caused outrage.

’We were taken to industrial tribunal and we were supported that we had taken the right action,’ he stresses.

The tribunal only voted by a majority of 2-1, so it was not a unanimous endorsement.

The Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK was later instrumental in the government reform that saw the end of the DCCL and, ironically, left him out of the cabinet.

He ended up as chairman of the Post Office, from 2014-16, but was sacked after finding himself at odds with the board over proposals for corporatisation. He appeared to relish the subsequent rejection, by Tynwald, of the board’s restructuring proposals.

He admits his dismissal came as a shock, however. At one stage, he was asked if he would consider taking on a new vice-chairman. If a football manager had a new assistant suggested to him, it might signal a warning, but what followed apparently still surprised Mr Cregeen.

’A week, 10 days later, I got a call to see (Treasury Minister) Eddie Teare - and I am replaced,’ he says. ’It came out of the blue when I had been told by the Chief Minister (Allan Bell) to think about taking on somebody else.’

His confidence in his current role is genuine, but Mr Cregeen might just start to get nervous if Howard Quayle suggests some new faces at the Department of Education and Children.