He opened the National Pupil Database and introduced the phonics check,a reading test for year 1 pupils. The later parts of his tenure were dominated by the Trojan Horse scandal.[4] During his Education Secretaryship,Gove was criticised by teachers unions and academic associations for his attempts to overhaul British education. He left the role when he was moved by Prime Minister David Cameron to the office of chief whip in the 2014 cabinet reshuffle.
In July 2010,he said that the Labour Party had failed in their attempt to break the link between social class and school achievement despite spending billions of pounds:quoting research,he indicated that by the age of six years,children of low ability from affluent homes were still out-performing brighter children from poorer backgrounds. At a House of CommonsEducation Select Committee he said that this separation of achievement grew larger throughout pupils' school careers,stating:"In effect,rich thick kids do better than poor clever children when they arrive at school [and] the situation as they go through gets worse".[5]
Exam and curriculum reforms
Gove's views on exam systems became clear in December 2014 after the release of archive papers from 1986. GCSEs were the brainchild of Sir Keith Joseph. Margaret Thatcher,believing they lacked rigour,fiercely opposed them. However,opposition to the new exams from the teaching unions persuaded her to introduce them immediately,purely so as not to appear weak. Although Gove had sought but failed to replace them,his special advisor,Dominic Cummings,described the 1986 decision as catastrophic,leading to a collapse in the integrity of the exam system.[6]
During the 2010 Conservative Party Conference,Gove announced that the primary and secondary-school national curricula for England would be restructured,and that study of authors such as Lord Byron,John Keats,Jane Austen,Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy would be reinstated in English lessons as part of a plan to improve children's grasp of English literature and language. Academies are not required to follow the national curriculum,and so would not be affected by the reforms. Children who failed to write coherently and grammatically,or who were weak in spelling,would be penalised in the new examinations. Historian Simon Schama would give advice to Government to ensure that pupils learnt Britain's "island story". Standards in mathematics and science would also be strengthened. He said that this was needed because left-wing ideologies had undermined education. Theirs was the view,he thought,that schools "shouldn't be doing anything so old-fashioned as passing on knowledge,requiring children to work hard,or immersing them in anything like dates in history or times tables in mathematics. These ideologues may have been inspired by generous ideals but the result of their approach has been countless children condemned to a prison house of ignorance".[7]
In a November 2010 white paper,Gove declared reforms would include the compulsory study of foreign languages up to the age of sixteen years,a shake-up of league tables in which schools are ranked higher for the number of pupils taking GCSEs[8] in five core subjects (English,mathematics,science,a language and one of the humanities),and the introduction of targets for primary schools. It proposed that trainee teachers should spend more time in the classroom,teacher training applicants should be more rigorously tested—including tests of character and emotional intelligence—and sponsorships for former troops to retrain as teachers to improve discipline. It also said teachers would receive guidance on how to search pupils for more items,including mobile phones and pornography,and when they can use force.[9]
In April 2011,Gove criticised schools for not studying pre-twentieth century classics and blamed "England's constricted and unreformed exam system" for failing to encourage children to read. Gove also blamed an "anti-knowledge culture" for reducing achievement and said children benefited when expectations were set higher.[10] In June 2011,his own "ignorance of science" was criticised[by whom?] after he called for students to have "a rooting in the basic scientific principles" and by way of example assigned Lord Kelvin'slaws of thermodynamics to Sir Isaac Newton.[11]
In June 2012,the Daily Mail published leaked plans to scrap GCSE examinations,return to O-level exams and allow less academic students to take alternative qualifications. The Liberal Democrats claimed that the plans had not been discussed with the deputy prime minister and were subsequently heavily criticised by some teachers,trade unions and Labour Party MPs;[12][13][14] they had been discussed with the prime minister at Cabinet level,and a subsequent YouGov/Sunday Timespoll suggested that the public supported this policy by a margin of 50% to 32%.[15][16] They received praise from the then-mayor of LondonBoris Johnson,who said that he "could be... singing a hymn of praises for my old chum Gove and his brilliant new Gove-levels."[17] The leaked documents also suggested that Gove was intending to create a single exam board to organise all exams,and to scrap the National Curriculum in its current form. However,there were "rebukes" from both the Welsh and Northern Ireland education ministers who said it was important to communicate before making announcements on proposed changes to jointly owned qualifications.[18]
In February 2013,shortly after the draft Programmes of Study for History in the national curriculum was released by the DfE,[19] the representatives of the principal organisations for historians in the UK wrote to The Observer to register "significant reservations" about its contents and the way in which it had been devised. They described it as "too narrowly and exclusively focused on British history" and argued that structuring history teaching in a strictly chronological sequence meant that students would learn about pre-modern history only in the early stages of their studies.[20]
In March 2013,100 academics wrote an open letter arguing that Gove's curriculum placed too much emphasis upon memorisation of facts and rules over understanding,and would lead to more rote learning.[21] Gove retorted that "there is good academia and bad academia."[22] In response,one signatory to the letter opined that Gove suffered from a "blinkered,almost messianic,self-belief,which appears to have continually ignored the expertise and wisdom of teachers,head-teachers,advisers and academics,whom he often claims to have consulted",[23] A senior civil servant admitted that one of the most controversial parts of the proposed secondary curriculum had been written internally by the DfE,without any input from experts.[24] His position on history teaching drew a positive response from only 4% of the Historical Association's membership.[25]
In May,Simon Schama,earlier mooted as a supporter of Gove's reforms of the history curriculum,delivered an excoriating speech in which he characterised the finalised proposals as "insulting and offensive" and "pedantic and utopian",accusing Gove of constructing a "ridiculous shopping list" of subjects. He urged the audience at the Hay Festival:"Tell Michael Gove what you think of it. Let him know."[26] In June,leaked documents revealed that a member of the Government's curriculum advisory group had described the reform process as having had "a very chaotic feel. It's typical of Government policy at the moment:they don't think things through very carefully,they don't listen to anyone and then just go ahead and rush into major changes."[27] In September,Robin Alexander said that the proposed reforms to the primary-level national curriculum were "neo Victorian","educationally inappropriate and pedagogically counter-productive".[28] In October,almost 200 people,including Carol Ann Duffy,Melvin Burgess and Michael Rosen,as well as academics from Oxford,Bristol and Newcastle universities,signed a letter to The Times condemning Gove's reforms,warning of the "enormous" and negative risks they posed to children and their education.[29]
That same month saw Oxford's head of admissions warn that the timetable for secondary-level reforms would "just wreck the English education system".[30]
Building Schools for the Future and school capital projects
Gove said that the previous government's school-building programme,Building Schools for the Future (BSF),would experience cutting.[3] He apologised,however,when the list of terminated school-building projects he had released was found to be inaccurate;the list was reannounced several times before it was finally accurately published.[31]
In February 2011,a judicial review deemed Gove's decision to axe BSF projects in six local authority areas unlawful as he had failed to consult before imposing the cuts.[32] The judge also said that,in five of the cases,the failure was "so unfair as to amount to an abuse of power" and that "however pressing the economic problems,there was no overriding public interest which precluded consultation or justifies the lack of any consultation".[32] The councils' response was that the Government would have to reconsider but the Government said it had won the case on the substantial issues.[32] The judge made clear that,contrary to the councils' position,they could not expect that their projects would be funded.[32]
In March 2011,Gove was criticised for not understanding the importance of school architecture and having misrepresented the cost.[33] In February 2011,he gave "not-quite-true information to Parliament" by saying that one individual made £1,000,000 in one year when the true figure was £700,000 for five advisers at different times over a four-year period.[33] He told a free schools conference that "no one in this room is here to make architects richer" and specifically mentioned architect Richard Rogers.[34]
Freedom of information and email
During the Cameron–Clegg ministry,Gove was the subject of repeated criticism for alleged attempts to avoid the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. The criticism surrounded Gove's use of various private email accounts to send emails that allegedly related to his departmental responsibilities. The allegations suggested that Gove and his advisers believed they could avoid their correspondence being subject to freedom of information requests,as they believed that their private email accounts were not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. In September 2011,the Financial Times reported that Gove had used an undisclosed private email account –called "Mrs Blurt" –to discuss government business with advisers.[35][36]
In March 2012 the Information Commissioner ruled that because emails the Financial Times had requested contained public information they could be the subject of a freedom of information request and ordered the information requested by the paper to be disclosed.[37][38] Gove was also advised to cease the practice of using private email accounts to conduct government business. He disputed the information commissioner's ruling and proceeded to tribunal,costing taxpayers £12,540 in fees for legal advice,[39] but the appeal was withdrawn.[40]
It was also alleged by the Financial Times that Gove and his advisors had destroyed email correspondence in order to avoid freedom of information requests. The allegation was denied by Gove's department who stated that deleting email was simply part of good computer housekeeping.[41][42]
Creationist schools
In June 2012,Gove approved three creationist schools,including Grindon Hall Christian School in Sunderland,[43] which opened in September 2012. This led to concerns about whether Department for Education (DfE) requirements not to teach creationism or intelligent design as science would be met.[44] The other creationist schools included Exemplar-Newark Business Academy,whose previous application was rejected because of concerns over creationism,and a third school in Kent. Both schools said they would teach creationism in RE but not in Science.[44]
The British Humanist Association (BHA) said teaching creationism in any syllabus was unacceptable.[44] In 2014,Gove's department acceded to the BHA's campaign by banning creationism from being taught as science in state-funded English schools,including academies and free schools,as well as introducing a requirement that such schools must teach evolution.[45]
2012 English GCSE results
In September 2012,following the furore surrounding the downgrading of GCSE English results,he refused,during his answers to the Parliamentary Education Committee on 12 September,to instruct Ofqual to intervene,and attacked his Welsh counterpart as "irresponsible and mistaken" for ordering disputed GCSEs to be regraded.[46] On 17 September he announced to the House of Commons an English Baccalaureate Certificate to replace GCSE,comprising English,Maths,Science,together with a Humanities subject and language,to be first examined in 2017. His plans to replace GCSE examinations with an English Baccalaureate were rejected by Parliament in February 2013.[47]
Children's homes scandal and data protection rules
In September 2013,news that the DfE did not maintain a register of children's homes in the UK came to light as a result of an article Gove wrote for The Daily Telegraph. Gove asserted his prior ignorance and surprise that the department did not hold this information and claimed that "Ofsted was prevented by 'data protection' rules,'child protection' concerns and other bewildering regulations from sharing that data with us,or even with the police".[48]
Gove's claim was refuted the same day by the information commissioner,Sir Christopher Graham,who pointed out there was "nothing" in data protection legislation that prevents vulnerable young people from being properly protected in care homes. Graham noted that "[t]his law covers information about people so it has no bearing on the disclosure of non-personal information like the location of care homes",and said he would be writing to both Gove and Sir Michael Wilshaw about the matter.[49]
Social work training
In November 2013 Gove delivered a speech to the NSPCC in which he argued that social work training involved "idealistic students being told that the individuals with whom they will work have been disempowered by society". Gove held that students were being "encouraged to see [service users] as victims of social injustice whose fate is overwhelmingly decreed by the economic forces and inherent inequalities which scar our society". Gove suggested that the intellectual demands of many social work courses should be raised. Gove explained that the training of social workers was of personal importance to him because his own life had been transformed by social workers as a result of his adoption at the age of four months old.[50][51]
While serving as Education Secretary,Gove asked Sir Martin Narey,a former director general of prisons and chief executive of Barnardo's,to conduct a review of social work education. Narey subsequently made 18 recommendations,which he said could be implemented at "minimal cost",for the reform of social work education. Narey called for more emphasis to be placed on practical skills and suggested that some of the students recruited were not up to the job. He found that course standards varied widely and called for tighter minimum entry standards and the standardisation of the teaching provided to social work students.[50][52]
Gove was criticised by teachers unions for his attempts to overhaul British education. At the Association of Teachers and Lecturers Annual Conference in March 2013 a motion of no-confidence in Gove was passed.[57] This was followed up the next month at the annual conference of the National Union of Teachers (NUT),who unanimously passed a vote of no confidence in Gove and called for his resignation.[58]
The audience at the NUT conference was told[by whom?] that Gove had "lost the confidence of the teaching profession","failed to conduct his duties in a manner befitting the head of a national education system",and "chosen to base policy on dogma,political rhetoric and his own limited experience of education."[59] Gove was further criticised at the May 2013 conference of the National Association of Head Teachers,for what they claimed was a climate of bullying,fear and intimidation during his time as Education Secretary. The conference passed a vote of no confidence in his policies.[60]
Changes to pay,pensions,and workloads were also controversial. The NUT and NASUWT staged strikes on a regional basis in October 2013,[61][62] although a national strike was averted.[63] After talks failed,[64][65] strike action affecting 10,000 schools took place in March 2014.[66]
Sarah Vine,Gove's wife,accused socialists of sending their family "vicious and aggressive" death threats due to Gove's education reforms,and said she had considered moving with their two children to Italy as a result of these threats.[67] Before the coalition Government,in 2010,a YouGov poll of teachers' voting intentions found that 33% were Conservative and 32% were Labour;four years later,a poll found that only 16% were Conservative and 57% were Labour.[68]
The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of particular subjects,taken in England,Wales,and Northern Ireland,having been introduced in September 1986,and its first exams sat in 1988. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. However,private schools in Scotland often choose to follow the GCSE system in England.
Timothy Paul Loughton,is a British politician and former banker who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Worthing and Shoreham since the 1997 general election. A member of the Conservative Party,he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families from 2010 to 2012 and has twice served as the Acting Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee in 2016 and 2021,following the respective resignations of Keith Vaz and Yvette Cooper.
AQA Education,trading as AQA,is an awarding body in England,Wales and Northern Ireland. It compiles specifications and holds examinations in various subjects at GCSE,AS and A Level and offers vocational qualifications. AQA is a registered charity and independent of the government. However,its qualifications and exam syllabi are regulated by the Government of the United Kingdom,which is the regulator for the public examinations system in England and Wales.
Michael Andrew Gove is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Levelling Up,Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations since October 2022,having previously held both offices from September 2021 to July 2022. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Surrey Heath since 2005. A member of the Conservative Party,he has also served in various Cabinet positions under Prime Ministers David Cameron,Theresa May,Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak. Gove has twice run to become Leader of the Conservative Party,in 2016 and 2019,finishing in third place on both occasions. Apart from a period of just over one year,he has served continuously in the Cabinet since 2010.
The National Curriculum assessment usually refers to the statutory assessments carried out in primary schools in England,colloquially known as standard assessment tasks (SATs). The assessments are made up of a combination of testing and teacher assessment judgements and are used in all government-funded primary schools in England to assess the attainment of pupils against the programmes of study of the National Curriculum at the end of Key Stages 1 and 2 where all pupils are aged 6,7,10 and 11 respectively. Until 2008,assessments were also required at the end of Key Stage 3 (14-year-olds) in secondary schools after which they were scrapped.
An academy school in England is a state-funded school which is directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local authority control. The terms of the arrangements are set out in individual Academy Funding Agreements. 80% of secondary schools,40% of primary schools and 44% of special schools are academies.
Bramhall High School is a nine form entry,comprehensive high school for 11 to 16-year-olds in Bramhall,Stockport,England.
Denbigh High School is an English medium secondary school based in Denbigh,North Wales. Pupils who attend are between the ages of 11 and 18.
Harris Federation is a multi-academy trust of 52 primary and secondary academies in and around London. They are sponsored by Philip Harris.
Nicola Ann Morgan,Baroness Morgan of Cotes,is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities from 2014 to 2016 and Secretary of State for Digital,Culture,Media and Sport from 2019 to 2020. She was the first woman to chair the Treasury Select Committee. A member of the Conservative Party,she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Loughborough from 2010 to 2019.
A free school in England is a type of academy established since 2010 under the Government's free school policy initiative. From May 2015,usage of the term was formally extended to include new academies set up via a local authority competition. Like other academies,free schools are non-profit-making,state-funded schools which are free to attend but which are mostly independent of the local authority.
The Academies Act 2010 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It aims to make it possible for all publicly funded schools in England to become academies,still publicly funded but with a vastly increased degree of autonomy in issues such as setting teachers' wages and diverging from the National Curriculum. The Act is inspired by the Swedish free school system. Journalist Mike Baker described it as a "recreation of grant-maintained schools".
The English Baccalaureate (EBacc) is a school performance indicator in England linked to the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) results. It measures students' attainment by calculating an average score from specified subject grades. The EBacc includes subjects which are studied in many subsequent university programmes.
The Maharishi School is a non-academically selective free school in Skelmersdale and Lathom,Lancashire,UK. The school was founded in 1986 and uses "consciousness-based education" methods including Transcendental Meditation.
Katharine Moana Birbalsingh is a British teacher and education reform advocate who is the founder and head teacher of Michaela Community School,a free school established in 2014 in Wembley Park,London. Politically,she identifies as a small-c conservative.
Dixons Kings Academy is a mixed free school for pupils aged 11 to 16 located in Bradford,West Yorkshire,England. The school opened as the Kings Science Academy in September 2011 and was one of the first free schools to open in England. It cost £10,451,327 to build and,pays an annual rent of £296,000
Discovery New School was a co-educational Montessori free school for pupils aged 4 to 10 located in Crawley,West Sussex. The school opened in September 2011 as one of the first free schools in the country and also the first Montessori free school. The school was funded directly by central government and had a planned intake of 16 pupils per year. Although the school adopted Montessori methods,the Montessori Schools Association (MSA) later said that they were refused permission to oversee the introduction of its teaching methods and had "warned the DfE of the school's likely failure" in 2010 before the school opened. Philip Bujak,chief executive of the MSA,said:"We were ignored completely." Martin Bradley,chairman of the MSA,said:"The Montessori Schools Association has had limited contact with the school from the start of the scheme. We suggested that they seek accreditation,but they did not."
Ark Kings Academy is a co-educational all-through school and sixth form located over two sites in the Kings Norton area of Birmingham,West Midlands,England.
The Trojan Horse scandal,also known as "Operation Trojan Horse" or the Trojan Horse affair,is a conspiracy theory that posits a plot to introduce an "Islamist" or "Salafist" ethos into several schools in Birmingham,England. The name,based on the Greek legend,comes from an anonymous letter sent to Birmingham City Council in late 2013,alleged to be from Birmingham "Islamists" detailing how to wrest control of a school,and speculating about expanding the scheme to other cities. The letter was leaked to the press in March 2014. Around a month later,Birmingham City Council revealed that following the letter release it had received hundreds of allegations of plots similar to those described in the letter,some claims dating back over 20 years. The letter has been characterised as "incomplete,unsigned and unaddressed",but led to two investigations commissioned by the Department of Education and Birmingham City Council,the Clarke and Kershaw Reports,respectively. The reports did not both endorse the idea of "a plot",but points to "behaviour indicative of a concerted attempt to change schools".
The Curriculum for Wales is the curriculum which is being introduced in state-funded education in Wales for pupils aged three to sixteen years. The curriculum's rollout began in 2022. As of September 2023,it is statutorily required for all pupils apart from those in school years 9,10 and 11. The curriculum has been developed based on a report commissioned in 2014. Amongst other changes,it gives schools greater autonomy over what they teach children. Views on the curriculum have been varied.
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