Hmmm – Gove was education secretary and teachers hated him. This is the statement from the NUT on him from a while ago on why he’s bad for children’s education
1 He has a narrow view of what makes a good education – one that doesn’t include
vocational subjects.
2 He constantly runs down our education system and our children’s achievements,
despite our country doing well in international league tables – this demoralises our
teachers and our children
3 He has removed the need for schools to employ qualified teachers, and attacks our
teachers’ professionalism.
4 He has presided over the unfairness of last year’s GCSEs and refused to do anything to
help the 10,000 children given unfair grades.
5 He has done nothing to resist the trebling of tuition fees.
6 Abolition of the EMA has resulted in fewer 16-19 year olds in education. He will have
cut post-16 funding by 20% across the lifetime of this Government.
7 He has unpicked many long-standing requirements for school premises, including
dropping requirements for minimum temperatures, staffrooms, and minimum ratios
for toilets; and he’s reduced the space standards for new schools as well.
8 He has cancelled the modernisation programme for all schools and diverted the money
to supporting Free Schools, often in areas which don’t need extra school places.
9 He has cancelled the City Challenge programme which was improving results without
privatisation.
10 He wants to end the national teachers’ pay system, putting recruitment and retention
of teachers at risk and forcing head teachers and governors to focus on negotiating
pay instead of improving standards for students.
We have seen these policies before. In the 80s and 90s education was underfunded, schools
were run down, and teachers were vilified and in short supply. We have come so far since then.
It will be a tragedy if Gove is allowed to turn the clock back.
Unfortunately he is not prepared to stop there. He is deregulating education as much as he can
and he is promoting business interests. This giant experiment is putting our children’s future at
risk.
Clearly they’re biased, but we really could have him as PM…
