Michael Gove seems to be incapable of learning any lessons from history when it comes to education. The 1997 Education Act gave local government a duty to promote higher standards in all schools.
Now the Education Secretary proposes to do that job himself. Instead of dealing with the few local authorities which have failed in their duty to promote and raise standards, he intends to introduce all sorts of diversionary ideas many of which are no more than gimmicks.
People will have to take an aptitude test before training to become a teacher. Who designs this new attempt of measuring a good teacher before they have trained?
Serving soldiers and sailors will be asked to switch careers because they are doing a good job handling people. Presumably Gove thinks they can keep order in a classroom.
He cancels the new buildings for schools which are in urgent need of them leaving thousands of students having to learn in old and inadequate premises. He wants to fund all schools himself through the Department of Education with the help a new and presumably expensive quango called the New Schools Funded Agency.
More schools will be judged as failing, as the bar to succeed is lifted. They then will be obliged to become an academy school – no doubt run by some private company with no record of previous involvement in education.
Turning round failing schools is important, but there is no magic answer. Finding the cause is necessary before the most appropriate solution can be applied. Many councils are doing this effectively, but a centralised top-down approach is likely to lead to some spectacular failures. In fact, that has already happened with an increasing number of academy schools.
Gove has abolished the new diploma in Languages which teachers and universities had helped to design –which they saw revitalising language teaching in the schools. He also proposes that students will fail the England baccalaureate if they do not gain A-C grade in a modern language.
Appeals against the exclusions of students will be abolished and the decision will now be left to the head teacher. Apart from this being against natural justice, what are the Education Secretary’s plans for dealing with more excluded students and an increase in court cases?
Apparently, any group of people can set up a new school, even if it is not needed. Apparently, any building can be used for this purpose – from a garage to a disused shop. It might be a little difficult to teach science under such circumstances, but then these new schools do not have to follow the national curriculum.
The terms of teachers’ pay and conditions will be abolished. That will not mean higher pay for teachers, but more unfairness and greater turnover of staff. Many schools with falling enrolment and less money will find it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain staff, as happened the last time the Tories were in power.
Abolishing educational maintenance grants for poorer 16-19 year old students is both incomprehensible and mean-spirited. These have resulted in many poorer students gaining qualifications instead of leaving school at 16. The savings will be modest, but the social cost will be high. Gove says he wants to introduce some targeted awards instead, but fails to understand that the education maintenance awards were already targeted.
Free school meals, which were planned in specified deprived areas, are now abolished. This is in spite of evidence that they would have led to better attendance and improved learning. Adult education is facing severe cuts, while further education colleges will see many of their courses decimated through lack of resources. Universities face a dramatic reduction in funding ,with higher fees for all students. It will mean countries such as India will see an increase in the number of graduates while Britain will see a considerable decline.
Gove ought to read up how education was managed in the 19th century. He might then discover why local government was involved in setting up secondary schools following the 1902 Education.
Parents showed little support for grant maintained schools during the time of the previous last Conservative Government and promises of a grammar school in every town by John Major horrified both Gillian Shepherd, his Education Secretary, and most parents in the run-up to the 1997 general election campaign.
Gove is also abolishing specific grants for school sport, one-to-one tuition for students needing extra help, for individuals wanting to learn a musical instrument, and money for summer and Saturday morning schooling. This is justified by claims that head teachers will have more freedom to spend money as they wish. However, t fact many schools will end up with less money means that many students will lose valuable opportunities.
China’s cultural revolution under Mao comes to mind as we are about to see this country’s educational system take many backward steps after years of rising achievement. The importance that employers place on students learning essential workplace skills is being ignored, as Gove devalues vocational courses as less valuable than GCSE.
Schools and colleges already have considerable freedom under local management, but this is being undermined by the new white paper.
We need an education system relevant for the 21st century and the global economy, not one that wants to replicate the worst aspects of the 19th century.
Graham Lane is a former chair of Newham council’s education committee
