On Thursday, Channel Four screens a documentary called Undercover Teacher, in which a reporter, Alex Dolan, worked under cover as a supply teacher. From the account she gave in the Sunday Telegraph, the situation in some of our toughest schools is dire beyond our worst fears. Disorder is so endemic, and the teachers behave in such an utterly powerless and defeated way, that education in such places is out of the question. As she said:

‘What struck me very early on was that poor, even outrageous indiscipline - children leaping across tables or wandering around brandishing fire extinguishers - had become acceptable. At one school, I was calmly advised by a female colleague to lock the classroom door while I was teaching, to "protect" myself and my class from the marauding groups in the corridors. The look of surprise on my face did not seem to register with her.’

One of the most shocking things in her account is the way in which the schools inspectors Ofsted are duped. Despite the disorder, violence and absence of teaching in the school, the inspectors see none of it:

‘When Ofsted inspectors arrived the week after for a two-day visit, however, the school was suddenly transformed. I got through a whole lesson without incident, the corridors were mayhem-free, the atmosphere calmer. The mystery was solved by a classroom assistant who told me in a hushed exchange in the lavatory that more than 20 of the most difficult pupils had been sent on a "day trip". As inspectors monitored lessons, senior managers popped up taking classes that they did not normally teach. Experienced teachers from neighbouring schools were parachuted in. One teacher, who appeared seemingly out of nowhere, said: "I've been drafted in basically to give support to this department while HMI are in. It's a bit of a con-job really." Staff at three other schools told me that "hiding" problem pupils from inspectors was common practice.’

No wonder the government thinks things are getting better in the schools, if the Ofsted analyses which inform them are so much at variance with the truth. There’s a simply way round that one, of course -- spot inspections, with no warning given to the schools. I have never understood why this is not routine. But the problem of disorder is, of course, another matter, fuelled by a complex of social pathologies to which this government appears to have no solution.