The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools – a former special adviser to Ken Clarke, political secretary to Prime Minister John Major and a public relations executive with Sir Tim Bell – was made a
life peer by David Cameron to get him into government last May.
He has written to head teachers warning them that applications “to achieve academy status” for their schools will be jeopardised if they have the temerity to sign up to national collective agreements on pay and conditions.
Bob Johnson, an executive member of the National Association of Schoolmasters/ Union of Women Teachers, told the Anti-Academies Alliance annual general meeting at Canterbury Hall, University of London, on January 15: “It was signed off at the highest ministerial level with the consideration of politicians and senior civil servants within the department. It is a declaration of war.”
He said the coalition government had no mandate to carry out its controversial academies programme and pointed to recent polls in which 95 per cent of parents said clearly that they do not want schooling to be provided by private companies using teachers who are not properly qualified.
Peter Downes, a Liberal Democrat on Cambridgeshire County Council and a former comprehensive school head, said there was nothing in the coalition agreement about this drive for privatisation. He said: “This is Michael Gove trying to make his mark.
