By its very nature politics is a divisive business. Politicians agree and disagree. Often in Northern Ireland they can't agree to disagree, which leads to more disagreement about what they were disagreeing about in the first place, and so it continues.
t is a trait that permeates through society. A simple dipping of the toe into the treacherous waters of Twitter will show you the anger, the vitriol, the downright contempt many have for politicians and the decisions they announce.
In many respects you have to have a grudging admiration for those who stand up to be counted. But that doesn't mean the people who elected them can't have an opinion on how they are doing.
In taking opinions into account, it is important to remember that not one of our Ministers, on taking up their respective positions at Stormont, could have been prepared for what they have faced over the past 12 months.
There are, though, winners and losers. The political stage isn't like being in the school playground these days where it is the taking part that counts.
Health Minster Robin Swann emerges a winner.
There has always been a certain admiration, perhaps even sympathy, for the family man who took on the health role when no-one else seemed to want to touch it.
Very quickly he endeared himself by securing pay parity for NHS workers in line with the rest of the UK. The good will for early work saw him enter the Covid crisis from an excellent starting position.
And what followed was the community getting behind the health service when we needed it most.
The poll doesn't read so well for Education Minister Peter Weir though, as schools have stumbled from one crisis to another throughout the pandemic.
He stuck to his guns on the merits of algorithms to help decide A-level grades last August.
You could almost hear the winces as, after complaints that 37% of pupils saw their teacher-given grades lowered, the gun went off in its holster, shooting him in the foot.
It was hard to recover from that and he has limped on over the last six months from one education crisis to another. And while we rallied around in our support for the health service, that divisive nature of politics has come into play in education.
In trying hard to keep schools open as long as possible, that played into the hands of those who felt schools had to close to stop the spread of Covid-19 in the community, whatever statistics were reeled off for digestion.
Late decisions have left head teachers floundering, particularly over Christmas. First we heard schools would reopen in January despite the rest of the country going back into lockdown. That correspondence was transmitted to principals at 8pm on a Friday night, the final day of term. Timing is everything. Before schools could return, remote learning was back in place.
In trying to give decisions every chance, the Minister has only succeeded in adding to a lack of clarity across the board. When people don't know what is happening, the messenger is usually the first brunt of frustration. Again the Minister wanted to give every chance for transfer tests to go ahead as planned. It was a decision technically out of his hands. That rug was pulled under him first by the PPTC, who cancelled transfer tests, then by the AQE, who didn't help the matter by announcing a new date just six hours after cancelling the January exams, only to cancel them completely just a week later.
While the Minister's hands may have been loosely tied, faith in decisions across the educational spectrum were somewhat diminished again.
The transfer tests also brought another controversial issue into play - academic selection. Peter Weir, and the DUP, are staunch defenders of the system.
Others are not, and only naturally seized the chance to land a punch or two.
The mood wasn't helped by what he admitted himself was a 'clumsy' post on social media which was latched on to as being demeaning to secondary schools.
Battered from several sides, the Minister is still standing but is facing more concerns in the next few weeks at a time when society is calling out for decisive answers.
Critical decisions loom over how pupils will transfer from primary to post primary, how grades will be awarded at A-level, GCSE and AS-level. There will be serious scrutiny of that given the chaos of August last year.
Inequalities exist over access to home schooling.
The haves flourish, the have nots are left behind, though much of that is down to years of under-investment in school IT systems and support across society as a whole.
He has faced calls to resign, been accused of indecision and of putting a faith in academic selection ahead of what others believed to be the best interests of pupils themselves.
While the Health Minister has had one single, albeit vital, goal over the past years, to save lives, the Education Minister has had spinning plates appearing almost on a weekly basis.
And as Covid has shone a single, glaringly bright light on the health service, that light when turned on education on has fractured in a multitude of directions, blurred the vision and ultimately left the Education Minister exposed on several fronts as party politics, cultural differences in approach and the fact that no two people, from parents, to teachers, pupils to the teaching unions, seem to have the same opinion on what is best for our children combined into a crescendo of disapproval.
It is not at all surprising that some of those plates have come crashing to the floor, and with them approval ratings for the person on centre stage.
